Combustion
by Madeleina
Summary: The CSI Guide to Starting Fires: take one downhome Montanan, strike against one native New Yorker, throw on some logs of twists and turns for kindling, and come out burnt! It gets better on the inside....Please R & R!
1. Ignite

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Author's Note:** okay, just a first post that's hijacked my brain, be kind please and read and review. 

**Disclaimer:** don't own em...haha, who here does? sigh

**Summary:** The CSI Guide to Starting Fires: take one down-home Montanan, strike against one native New Yorker, throw on somelogs of twists and turns for indling, and come out burnt!

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**Combustion

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It was hot, it was steamy, and it was summer in New York City. It was sweaty and scorching, oppressive and sweltering outside; and it would have been a routine process of an arson scene, except for the dead body that the NYFD found when responding. That's why Danny was trudging up seven flights of old, creaky, wooden stairs with his case, followed closely by Lindsay, who Mac had called in on her day off because everyone else available was busy at a triple homicide uptown. Firefighters were still all over the scene, water dripping off everything, the acrid smell burning Danny's lungs deeply. The body lay crushed into the base of the kitchen counter, and was half burnt. Danny had gloves on before they even got inside, as Lindsay talked to the fireman in charge. He never got over that smell – probably the worst there was – burnt human flesh; he had to suck in breaths every so often, and then hold them as he started processing. From where he was crouched he could hear the guy's answers to Lindsay's routine questions.

"Naw, no one touched it. The right leg might be shifted a little, cause one of my guys tripped over it, that's how they found it in the first place. We couldn't tell from sight whether it was male or female, so we thought we'd let you guys take care of all that technical stuff. If you need anything else, just ask, some of the guys will be around for a while cause they gotta finish up their part of the job." The man shook her hand, and walked out, as Lindsay turned to look at Danny.

"So, what can you tell so far?" She watched him pat down the charred body in a brief exam, then glance up at her.

"Don't know. I haven't checked the head or lower body yet, but so far, no outward injuries to suggest trauma, before or after the burning started." Lindsay had turned and was starting to search the apartment's gutted and dripping interior for any kind of abnormalities that suggested evidence of wrongdoing. A couple firefighters were in the hall, and one had just returned to the apartment to get the end of the hose they had used. His buddies thought it'd be funny to pull some fun with him, and kept rolling the end of the hose out of his reach.

"C'mon, Morrow, it can't be any harder to get it than one of those calves you're always talking bout roping," they ribbed him. He laughed – it was a deep, solid sound – as they continued, "Guess the Montana boy doesn't do so well without a rope and a horse, guys. All that University of Montana education didn't seem to make him any smarter." The firefighter just laughed some more, and grabbed the end of the hose in a lunge. At the sound of Montana, Lindsay had turned to watch, and was now greeted with the sight of a man's ass in dark fireman's pants with their yellow stripes and his black boots in the air, as he had jumped for the end of the hose. And for all that she attempted not to get caught staring, she couldn't help but admit it was a very nice ass. Attempting to determine if her ears had deceived her, Lindsay figured she'd ask him something only a true Montanan could answer.

Just as he had stood, his back to her, she threw out, "What's the name of the place used furniture goes to?"

Before he even turned, he rumbled out "The front yard," while chuckling sincerely. He turned around, and Lindsay smiled full-on at him – he was definitely a real Montanan. He smiled back – that joke was like code-word for "I'm from Montana."

Danny had listened to the whole thing, and every so often glanced up to watch the exchange unfold. The guy was big – he was like 6'5", 200-something odd pounds, all built and ripped, like your stereotypical firefighter, with medium to dark brown hair, and solid looking features. Danny could only see his profile, but he would bet all that this guy's eyes were blue; _He's like a goddamn built Prince Charming!_ And Lindsay was all smiles; _the ones that lghtt up her face and make her eyes sparkle and show off just the hint of dimples, and make her so irresistible_. Danny shook his head, dangerous thoughts, dangerous thoughts right now. He coughed and looked up as the two just kind of stared at each other and yelled over, "Hey Montana, ya wanna help me process this DB or what?" Flack had just arrived, and was standing behind Firefighter Charming.

At the sound of "Montana," both Lindsay and Morrow looked at Danny, who was cradling the DB's head in his hands, probing it gently for wounds. "We gotta finish up here so the ME can cart away the body, and we can get back to the lab." Morrow turned to Lindsay, smiling, and beginning to hold out his hand before he thought better of it as he still had his fire gloves on. "So your name is Montana? Just like home, I assume?"

She blushed, "No no, umm, my name is Lindsay Monroe," she emphasized _Lindsay_ just the tiniest bit, to let Morrow know not to call her Montana. Danny grinned on the inside, _Ha! She knows she loves that name, even if she reminds everyone not to call her that_. Flack just stood there smirking. "Well, Miss Monroe, it's been a real pleasure meeting another Big Sky native out here in the Big City. Maybe we'll run into each other again." Morrow smiled again - _he has a really nice smile to go with those looks_, Lindsay thought - then turned and took the hose with him. Flack came over and stood next to her as she watched Morrow leave, then went to stand opposite Danny and the body.

"Nice to see one of our venerable NYFD knows how to "rassle" up a hose, something he learned on the ranch no doubt," Flack teased as he nudged her side. She rolled her eyes and blushed slightly.

"Looks like that's all he knows how to roll out and up," Danny cut at her, his implication obvious. Flack, kind of taken aback by Danny's cutting words but understanding the motivation behind them, said, "Oh c'mon Danny, you know if you weren't a cop you'd be out putting out fires." Danny just scoffed and laughed.

Lindsay snorted, then said, "Oh no, Danny here much prefers to start them. Besides, Messer," Lindsay stared right at him, "at least when he rolls out his hose, it quenches the fire." Flack guffawed, as Danny looked up, a mix of emotions on his face at her teasing double entendre, but Lindsay just shrugged and knelt to help roll the body.

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"Hey Don, did you catch up with Danny and Lindsay at that fire scene?" Mac yelled out just as Flack was passing his open office door. Flack leaned on the jamb, and nodded. "So what does the fire department think this was: arson or accidental? And did those two find anything to indicate suspicious circumstances of death?" 

Flack cocked his head to the side, "Department's not sure yet what it was, but they're looking into it as we speak. The arson investigators were getting there as Danny and Lindsay finished, and as far as I could tell they didn't find anything overtly wrong. But I gotta tell you, Mac, that apartment wasn't the only thing that was giving off sparks." Mac just shook his head.

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**ok, so please Review…i'd love you forever. kay, maybe just for today, but oh well.**


	2. Flare

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A/N: Ok, disclaimer and all in the first chap….and I'm working on chap 3 already, but I wanted to get this out cause all the reviews have been so great! Y'all made my day, seriously!**

oh and Sammy, i know what she said was kinda harsh, but it was sorta meant that way…just wait, you'll see what i mean.

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**Chapter 2: Flare

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Danny grabbed a file from the lab counter and trotted towards the stairs; Marty Pino and Lindsay were waiting for him down in Autopsy 1 to run through the various areas of interest on the burn vic. He buttoned up his blue jumpsuit just as he walked backwards through the doors, file in his teeth. He didn't know if it was the heat of the day, or the fact that they were in the basement, but he was rather irritable; _I'm sweaty, I'm hot, and it definitely smells down here today_. It didn't help that all he could think about was the way Lindsay had reacted to that firefighter this morning.

"And here I thought we were going to have to wait all day for you, Messer," Lindsay laughed. Marty chuckled and moved over to the opposite side of the table from them, readying himself to go through the report with them. Danny just grunted, crossed his arms over his chest, and looked at the body.

"Ok, let's start with basics," Marty said. "Your vic is female, we had to determine that from a pelvic x-ray, and she was not older. I'd say somewhere between 25 and 35. She was pretty well burned, but the weird thing is that her burns originate from the inside of her body," Lindsay looked at Danny intrigued and he just quirked an eyebrow, "and then spread outward after exiting through her oral and vaginal cavitities – which were both pretty deteriorated from the fire – and also from this large open hole I found on her lower right abdomen;" the appropriate pointing was done.

"There was also something else I found inside the body that was rather interesting. Danny, give me a hand," Danny and Marty began to lift and roll the body onto her right side, towards Marty, when Lindsay chimed in,

"Hey, just cause I'm a girl doesn't mean I don't have enough strength to roll a body too." Danny laughed as Marty shrugged. "Sorry, Lindsay, I only asked Danny cause he was closer."

"Rolling a body takes more than strength, it also takes skill," Danny teased. "It isn't like roping a calf or grabbing a rope, Montana, this is dead weight, ya know." Marty chuckled at Danny's stupid "dead wight" joke, as Lindsay crossed her arms and did her best to glare at him as she started to blush at his reference about earlier at the scene. His words made her mind go back to that very good looking Montana fireman, which helped dampen her already weak scowl.

Danny knew she was thinking about the firefighter from earlier, and wished she was thinking about other things, but he chose to enjoy the blush on her cheeks instead; _that color pink on her outdoes any make-up she could use, mmm, damn!_

"Earth to Montana, Pino here has been talking for the last minute and you've been off in a place hotter than this," Danny shot at her. She blushed again, a deeper shade of that pink, at being caught by him thinking of the fireman – how did he know my thoughts – and turned her attention back to the exam.

"All I said was, when I cut into her to start examining the organs, I didn't find any blood, but rather this dark and yellowy colored liquid. I sent it to get tested, and the results are rather interesting," Marty looked up at them. Danny chuckled and said, "Doc, everything is interesting to you."

"Well yeah, but the tests showed that her blood went through large amounts of erythrocytolysis, and basically came out as nothing but deteriorated cells and plasma with some serum. It was really shocking the amount of damage that was done, her RBC's were basically black and charred – but not from the fire, from some chemical." Marty cut into her back and showed them the oozing fluid. He moved to the other side of Danny, who was pulling the body up towards him, and cut into her leg; this time blood came out.

"So she had large amounts of hemolysis in her torso, but not in her legs. That would mean that whatever chemical agent caused the damage was administered from a site somewhere on the torso," Lindsay commented. "So this is definitely a murder."

"Well," Marty shrugged, "I wouldn't say definitely, because she could have introduced the chemical agent herself, but the fact that she damn near exploded from the inside out, leads me to believe, yes, this is murder. And a very painful one at that." Lindsay shook her head, feeling bad for the pain the woman obviously endured.

Danny watched her face, betraying her feelings for those who looked close enough, and caught his breath. _God she even makes being compassionate sexy. Dangerous thought._ Attempting to put his mind back into a safe place, he asked, "Do we have any idea what caused the fire?"

Marty shook his head, "No, unfortunately. So far there's nothing that obviously caused that. There was this strange smell emitted when I performed the autopsy though, but I couldn't identify it. And it wasn't a normal autopsy smell. I sent everything to be analyzed, and there's a tox screen pending, but otherwise, finding what or who killed her, that's you guys."

Danny shrugged and thanked Marty for the info. Lindsay was already at the swinging doors waiting for him, when she said, all smiles, "Well then, Danny, let's go learn how to start the fire inside."

Danny groaned under his breath as air caught in his throat; _Oh God, this is gonna be one helluva case if she keeps doing that.

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ok, so i know this one seems kinda dull, but i had to get the case science in somehow, cause the title Combustion has a threefold meaning…so it also refers to the case. so while this is gonna be a heaping plate of hot DL, its also gonna deal with the case.

**you know you loved it anyway, so please Review.**


	3. Sear

**A/N: **ok, what do you get when you add case and fluff --- a little Cluff! Here's a Cluff chap.Love, El

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**Chapter 3: Sear

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Lindsay was hunched over the lab table going through various pieces of mail and trash from the victim's apartment. Some of the edges were charred as she sorted them into piles. It seems their victim – Cristine Connors – was a relatively normal, 30-something single female making a living in the Big Apple. She was a legal assistant in one of the big Manhattan firms, which was apparently paying for her to go to school, as evidenced by the various bills and schedules for classes. It seemed like she also liked to travel; she had various brochures from places all over, everywhere from Russia and the Ukraine, to Little Rock, Arkansas. Lindsay had just picked up a few pieces to examine them further, when Danny breezed through the door holding a couple files and reading as he walked.

"Okay, here we go. Our vic's tox screen came back; she's negative for all major narcotics and alcohol, but her blood was sent for further testing to determine what caused it to goo up like that," he glanced up at Lindsay, and -- _oh God, was that a mistake_, he thought. Her hair was mussed and she looked tired, like she was ready to go to bed, _and I could take her there. Oh danger!_ Danny damn near thought he was going to choke, his thoughts just seemed to keep getting the better of him lately, especially where Montana was concerned. He licked his lips, and she just kept watching him expectantly, never noticing anything amiss. _WORK! _

"Um, okay, anyway, the results of those tests came back, and it looks like she was positive for sodium hypochlorite." He didn't dare glance up.

"Her blood came back positive for Clorox? The household cleaning agent – Clorox?" Lindsay sounded more than incredulous.

"Uh yeah, that Clorox; you don't know of any others, do you Montana?"

Danny looked up then, only to find that she had slid off her stool and was moving towards him. _Deep_ _breath_. She had moved herself to his right side, half turned into him, her chest flush with his bicep. _Deep, deep breath. Focus_. She leaned into him slightly, he could feel her breath, hot and moist against his arm, flowing up over the hem of his shirt and onto his neck. Lindsay moved her right arm over his, pointing at various items on the lab report.

She glanced up at him in profile, completely unaware of his silent battle to maintain composure, "I see we still don't know what caused the burning, but at least we know what caused her RBC's to deteriorate. I think I might have found something in her mail that we need to check into; it seems she's been getting regular information from one of the labs at Columbia." Her fingertips brushed his as she skimmed the page with them. _Okay, not working, can't breathe -oh Lordy, she's killing me!_

Danny couldn't take it; he backed away from her with a jerk, and dumped the files into her arms. "I gotta," deep breath, "I forgot, there's some stuff I gotta check into, I um, left something over in the, yeah, I gotta finish up some fluoroscopy."

Lindsay quirked her eyebrow at him. He was up to something; she had never known Danny to trip over his words – even when he was visibly upset over his brother and Aiden. Danny was nothing if not collected, and yet, here he was in front of her, a complete mess of incoherent stammering and quick footsteps towards the doors. _Whatever, he'll figure it out,_ she thought, then said,"Uh, okay, Messer, I guess I'll just stay here and," the doors had already swung shut behind him, "finish up with fingerprinting the mail."

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Narrow, that's what it was, and he knew it. It was a narrow escape. _What in the hell is going on with me_? Danny stood shakily, back to the glass in his office door – the office he shared with the woman who seemed to be able to make him stop breathing recently. _Damn – I don't think I've ever wanted to just grab someone and kiss them as much as I wanted to with her just then_. He ran his hand through his hair, blowing out his breath that only now was coming back to him. It was like she made his body forget to work, and made his autonomic functions shut down.

He took another deep breath and let it out, pulling his glasses off. _Why is it that all of a sudden all I can think of is Montana? Why do I want her so much?_ He knew that he had grown to care about her as more than just a coworker over the better part of the last year - almost like she was a friend; and that it seemed like she had become more in tune with him, he almost dared think she cared. _But it's like she doesn't even realize how bad she makes me want her…that all I can think of is her, and me, and how my body temperature seems to rise every time I simply am in the same place as her._ _It's gotta be this heat wave outside. Yeah that's it; the summertime heat has just fried my brain a bit._ But even as he thought that, Danny knew he was lying, at least just a little bit. This thing was affecting his emotions too, something he wasn't sure he was ready to face.

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The rest of the day seemed to pass without incident for Danny. No more occasions where he nearly had to run away from Lindsay, just to keep himself in check. He found himself doubled over a microscope in Trace, painstakingly cataloguing the charred remains of clothing and tissues from Cristine Connors, when Marty caught up with him. 

"Listen, I'm on my way out, but I wanted to let you and Lindsay know that the arson investigators called and said they didn't find any evidence of an outside catalyst or accelerant used in the fire, so they aren't going to rule it arson. The way they figure, it was an accident or intentional, but either way, they don't really care, as long as it wasn't arson."

Marty stood next to Danny as he glanced up at the news, "'Course the fire guys wouldn't care, someone's death isn't as important as calves." Marty eyed him suspiciously, as if he thought Danny might have lost – Danny was beginning to think so too.

"Okay, so I'm not even going to ask what fire has to do with calves, but anyway," he dropped a file folder onto the stool next to Danny's, "I also wanted to drop this off – the report on stomach contents, well, what we could get anyway. And now, I'm off."

"Thanks, Pino. Listen, you haven't seen my brunette partner, have you?" Marty was just at the doors.

"Um, come to think of it, not super recently, but last time I saw her, I think her and Stella were having a girl moment in your office with a bunch of flowers. See ya," and he walked off. _Girl moment?_ _In our office? Flowers?_ Danny got up and grabbed the file next to him as an excuse to go investigate what Monroe was up to.

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Danny had just opened their office door, when he was greeted with, "Oh my God, Stella, I just never imagined, you know? I mean, how?" _Man, she's gorgeous when she smiles and her eyes light up_. Danny stood watching for a couple seconds, Lindsay was in profile to him and Stella was leaning back against Lindsay's desk, facing him. 

"Aren't they just beautiful?" Lindsay whispered, turning and bending over something. Danny moved towards his desk and spied a huge – and by huge that meant the-size-of-a-small-cow huge – arrangement of flowers sitting in the middle of Lindsay's desk.

"What's the occasion, Montana? We miss your birthday or something?" Danny joked, although he knew it wasn't her birthday because he had already looked that information up months ago and stored it away in his memory, just because he wanted it.

Stella grinned widely at him. "Oh no! Miss Monroe here has herself a very sweet admirer." Lindsay shot her an Oh-please-don't-tell-him-he'll-just-poke-fun-at-me look, but smiled shyly. "Seems she impressed some guy recently who thought it'd be sweet to send her these beautiful flowers as a sort of 'thanks-for-smiling-at-me-today' gift. I think it's completely adorable – even the card!" Stella sighed, thinking about how horribly the last time was when a guy sent her something. Too bad there weren't more guys like this one around; Stella didn't know him and she already liked him.

Danny eyed up the two women, then the flowers, dropping the file onto his desk as he planted his hands firmly onthe desk and leaned over to smell the arrangement of yellow and orange roses and lilies. He met Lindsay's eyes dead on as he pulled back up. "So, what did this oh-so-romantic card say, anyway?"

Stella plucked the card out of Lindsay's hand, since she hesitated to read what it said to him. Lindsay's cheeks blushed that beautiful shade of pink that Danny adored as Stella recited:

To the girl from Montana, who can start a fire with one look.

You made my morning sweet.

C.W. Morrow

"See, Danny, didn't I tell you that was sweet?" Stella sighed. "I bet the girls love it when you send them flowers," she teased. Danny just shrugged; his eyes had never left Lindsay's face, and she seemed to be looking everywhere but at him. He could only think one thought: _Wasn't Morrow that firefighter from Montana she met this morning?_

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ok…this was kinda a long chapter, but it was hopefully a good one. next time, the lab gets to meet than new man. 

**BTW** – you're reviews totally make me squeal and smile, so keep them coming, as i love you all!


	4. Thermal

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A/N:** alright – sorry this didn't come out sooner, but i've been busy. my older brother graduated college Saturday, and i graduated college a month ago, and my sister's having a baby, and i had to give the Heimlich…so been crazy. but this one turned out pretty long…and i'll have chap 5 by tom. oh! and its gonna be total fluff cause i love that. and -- in case you haven't figured it out, Danny's thoughts are the things in italics. 

oh yeah and, btw, i don't really like the idea of Lindsay with a new hunk either, but i think he provides the perfect plot point to stir Danny up. but i'm personally hardcore D/L all the way.

**R & R – Love, El**

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Chapter 4: Thermal

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The digital read on the bank thermometer that was near the lab building read 102.3°F. The guy standing next to Danny on the corner was looking up at it too. "Gotta be broken," he muttered. _Broken or not, it feels like 102.3 degrees_. Danny made his way into the crime lab building, where air-conditioning and climate-controlled temperatures were key to maintaining proper equipment operation. But Danny knew, even with the large amounts of cold air being pumped into the rooms all around him, his body temperature was about to go well above the 102.3 that was outside. _All it takes is her_.

Danny rounded the corner and dropped off some stuff in his office, before moving back to the Trace lab, where he had been working yesterday. He had thought he found some possible sites for fingerprints, but there was no way he could recover them on the charred clothing as is. He had to first remove the remaining expelled carbon, without using water which would wash away anything there. He ran the ALS wand over the area he was working on, picking up remote flashes of light, here and there, indicating there was fluid or fingerprints or something unusual. He had to change gloves a couple times, because they kept turning completely black from soot, and he didn't want to ruin these prints or fluids – they were too hard to get in the first place. From there, Danny managed to extract various sections of the cloth and body tissue to be placed in the tabletop tent for cyanoacrylate fuming. He also pulled off miniscule pieces of evidence at the same time to put them through the mass spectrometer.

Placing the pieces he cut into separate tents, Danny then systematically went to each one, dropping the chemicals into the pan to begin the process. _It shouldn't take long now before we know who or what you came into contact with before you died_. After Danny meticulously packaged the samples to be taken over to gas chromatography, he stood leaning back against the lab counter opposite where the samples were being processed. Arms crossed over his chest, he let himself think for a moment.

_She's gorgeous, yeah, and I definitely want her. I mean, I care about her; she's been pretty nice to me even though I've picked on her and put her through the paces. But, honestly, I would've done that with anyone who came in to take Aiden's place_. At the thought of Aiden, he paused a moment, it was still a fresh cut for him – they had been great friends. _She would've laughed at me, if she were here now. She'd have teased me for getting so caught up by one woman_. Danny cracked a lopsided grin. _But that's the thing, this isn't just some woman – this is Monroe. I mean, she's a coworker, a friend_, he sighed deeply, _and she's damn hot and I want her badly, but that's it right? I mean she's just an itch that I can't scratch, so that only makes it itch more_.

"Here's a penny." Hawkes had come in and Danny hadn't even heard. Danny eyed him quizzically, and then realized he meant the old "penny for your thoughts" deal.

"You can keep it." Danny shrugged. "I was just thinking 'bout itches."

"You were thinking about…itches? Like, ones you scratch? Or get when you have a rash?" Hawkes paused. "You don't have a rash, do you?"

Danny grinned. "Sheldon, buddy, no need to look so frightened, I don't have a rash. I don't have anything wrong at all. I was just thinking about hypothetical itches."

"I didn't know there was any other kind than real itches." Hawkes moved with him, as Danny went and retrieved his specimens for closer examination. Danny had pulled his samples out of the tents and was now poring over them with the microscope, looking for various evidence. He found a partial on the third piece of body tissue – the one from her arm – and went about retrieving the print. Hawkes just stood idly by, watching him work. Head down, glasses on his forehead, looking in the microscope at the detail of the print, Danny grunted.

"Did you actually want something, Doc?"

Hawkes shook his head, which Danny caught out of the corner of his eye, and shrugged. "Nope, you just looked like you were going to sink into your thoughts if someone didn't reel you back in. I just happened to be passing by. I'll leave you, your evidence, and your itches alone now; I have some things I gotta take care of for Mac for that uptown case we're working." Hawkes moved away and was almost out the door, when he turned back. "Oh and Danny?" Danny grunted again. "If you wanna talk about it – the "itch" – I'm always around." With that, he left.

Danny shook his head. _Montana, you won't bring me down so easy_.

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Two days after Danny had practically run away from Lindsay, they still hadn't figured out what caused their victim to burn from the inside out. They had gone through what they thought were all possible scenarios, only to discard each one in kind. 

"What if something caused her body temperature to rise enough that it simply caught fire to her actual organs?" Lindsay shook her head, even as she voiced the theory. "No, no I guess that wouldn't work." She sat there biting her bottom lip just a bit, eyes on her right knee which was crossed over her left one. _Oh, down boy, down_. "So I guess we're left with one option."

Danny was purposely keeping his eyes down on the lab table where he was going through the various pill bottles that they had collected when they did the pharmaceutical dump on Cristine's apartment. "What's that?"

"She spontaneously combusted."

This time around, Danny did choke, but not because she was making him hot. He was in disbelief. "You really think she spontaneously combusted? That's the theory you're gonna go with, Monroe?" He was staring at her like she was someone he didn't know.

"Well, her body burnt from the inside out. And at a very high temperature, mind you. We can't find a plausible reason why her body caught fire within her, so that leaves us with spontaneous combustion. We really can't rule it out, Danny." She looked at him as if this was the most practically obvious and logical conclusion she had ever explained to anyone.

"No. No, we're not considering it. I'm ruling it out."

"How can you rule it out? We have no other way to explain why this happened to an otherwise healthy 32 year old woman," she pinched the bridge of her nose, obviously frustrated. _I wanna rub that tension right outta her shoulders_.

"I can rule it out because I'm a scientist – **you're** a scientist – and spontaneous combustion is not a scientifically acceptable explanation. There's another explanation, we just haven't discovered it yet."

"So you're telling me that you just don't believe spontaneous combustion is possible?" The look Lindsay gave him made him feel like her future thoughts about him depended on the next words out of his mouth.

"Are you telling me **you** believe in spontaneous combustion?" _Always good, deflect it back to her_.

"Oh no you don't, Messer. At the risk of sounding four again, I asked you first. Don't you believe someone's body can burn up like our vic's?"

"Do I believe a body can burn like the vic's, yeah. Do I believe that it can start on the inside without any kind of external instigation or accelerant? No." He adjusted his glasses. _Ball's in her court_.

Lindsay licked her lips, and caught her bottom one in her teeth. That was fast becoming his favorite habit of hers. _To be her teeth right now_. She had looked down, thinking for a second, before meeting his gaze dead on. Staring into him, she shot off:

"You don't think a person can get so hot inside, they just burn up, Danny? The heat is so intense, so hot, it's just gotta burn them up from inside out so that it can burn out? You don't believe someone can feel a blaze like that?"

Danny stared right back, never breaking that gorgeous chocolate gaze of hers. _Talk about intensity of heat – this is solar_. It really was quite shocking to him that he hadn't simply passed out from the fever he was running yet. He licked his lips, never blinked, swallowed hard, trying to think of how to answer her. _We're changing the laws ofthermodynamics here_. If anyone knew about burning up from the inside, it was Danny.

"I believe it's very possible for a person to experience a heat so intense they can't do anything but succumb to it, let it burn through their entire body, consume them. I just don't think it's the same type of heat you're talking about. Bodies don't spontaneously combust." Though Danny could swear he was coming pretty damn close.

Lindsay kept her eyes trained on his. It was right on the tip of her tongue to ask: "What kind of heat burns you up, Danny?" Unfortunately, or possibly thankfully, depending on how one looked at it, Stella walked into the lab looking for her.

"Lindsay, there is a rather good-looking man located in the break room who says that he's here to pick you up. Can I take your place, if you don't know him?" Stella smiled.

Lindsay finally broke her gaze with Danny to look over at a grinning Stella. "Oh, I forgot! What time is it?" Her eyes flew to her wrist. "Crap! I'm late. Can you possibly go stall him while I run to my office to freshen up and grab my things, Stella?"

"Oh girl, no need to ask twice. My complete pleasure, trust me." Stella walked with Lindsay out of the lab, where Danny was still standing, staring at the place where moments before Lindsay's eyes had been. Stella grinned; he hadn't even blinked yet.

In the deafening crash of silence that followed their exit, Danny whispered one word to Lindsay's unspoken question: "You."

* * *

Danny had taken off his lab coat, and made his way to the break room, where he stood leaning against the counter, arms crossed over his chest – which coincidentally was all puffed out. He had made it there just as Flack arrived, and Flack had shot him a look, which combined with the fact that Danny had passed Lindsay in their office as she freshened up – meaning checking her face and hair in her compact, fixing her make-up, making herself look good for this guy, had Danny in a very uncivil mood. _She doesn't need to freshen up; she's gorgeous as is_. He wasn't saying anything; he didn't wanna make friends with this guy, because this guy was taking Montana out tonight. He was going to wine her, dine her, make her laugh, make her smile, look into her eyes, and maybe kiss her. _Oh hell no, I'm not going to think about some other guy doing what I want to do_. Danny made a low growl, which caused Flack and Hawkes to look at him, but no one said anything. He caught the tail of what Stella and this guy were talking about. 

"…well, that's my full name. I mean usually no one ever finds out that my middle name is Wyatt." He smiled a charming grin at Stella.

"So Colton Wyatt Morrow?" Stella batted her eyes at him.

Danny rolled his. _What is up with the women around here, he's just a guy_.

"Wyatt, as in Wyatt Earp?" Hawkes questioned.

"Wyatt, as in 'Son of the Forest Guide.' My mama had a thing for loggers, don't ask." Morrow blushed ever so slightly, which only made Stella sigh and find him that much more adorable.

_He's a son of a something, alright_. Danny unconsciously puffed his chest out a little more.

"Did you come from Montana to be a firefighter?" Mac asked him. Until now, Mac had kind of stood to the back, arms crossed like Danny, appraising the situation and the man. Mac was eyeing up the man as if he had come to take his only daughter to the prom; this guy would have to pass inspection if he intended on having any kind of influence on one of Mac's team. Personal lives had a funny way of impacting people's work habits.

"Um no, sir, I was an environmental engineer with the Montana Forest Service originally, with a specialty in developing containment and extinguishing systems in cases of brush and forest fires." Morrow had maintained eye contact with Mac, a sign of confidence and respect. "Personal reasons led me east, and kept me here. I love fighting fires; it's a fire in and of itself, so I joined the NYFD." Mac nodded.

"Oh, you guys aren't interrogating him, are you?" Lindsay had been standing in the break room doorway as Morrow explained his roots to Mac. She had thrilled at the idea that he had a golden heart.

Danny glowered. Lindsay had changed into jeans and a blouse, she was still wearing her heeled boots, and her wavy hair was down and around her face. _Betcha it feels good on the fingers_. She made her way over to Morrow, who stood a good foot and a half taller than her. He handed her more flowers that he had brought with him. She simply smiled graciously, since they were still in front of everyone, and she felt relatively self-conscious. "Are you ready to go?" Lindsay asked him. He smiled and "yes ma'am'ed" her, and they made their way to the door. "I'll see you all tomorrow. Oh, and Danny, we'll figure it all out, I promise." Lindsay gave him a look, Danny's eyes and heart damn near melted right out of his body, and there were more than one person who noticed; Morrow didn't seem to be one. Lindsay had meant the case, of course, but Danny couldn't help but hope maybe they'd soon figure some other things out as well.

"Have a good time!" Stella gushed, good-naturedly as they made their way out, while Mac raised a hand to wave bye.

Flack shot Danny a look, who turned his head away and scowled. "Ooo, so he fights fires, big freakin' deal. I bring dead people back to life," he mumbled sarcastically under his breath. He didn't think anyone had heard, since there was only Stella and Flack left at the door, and they seemed to be chatting to each other.

"I think he's adorable. A real good, old-fashioned gentleman," Stella grinned. "I'll meet you at Trace, Don, just give me a minute to grab something out of my office." Flack assented and walked away, leaving Stella and Danny alone in the break room.

Not talking to anyone in particular, but obviously directing her statement towards Danny, she said: "I'm happy for her. She has someone to treat her right."

Danny grunted, half-turned from her. She had all but exited when she popped her head back in the door. "By the way, Danny honey – you shouldn't wear that shirt. The color's all wrong for you."

Danny, thoroughly confused, looked down at his shirt. It was a nice shirt; he wore it all the time and got compliments. _What is she talking about – color?_ Danny shrugged off the comment as Stella talking crazy, and went to get some coffee.

His shirt was a big, old, bright green.

* * *

* * *

**mmm**…real long chap this time. there was more case than i had planned, but i'm glad it got in. hopefully, y'all still enjoyed it. let me know…**i heart y'all**.


	5. Inflame

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A/N: here we go…they say good things come to those who wait. and y'all have waited for me to update for so long, and you've been so patient that i just adore y'all, so here's a present: 2 chapters! one Fluff and one Case – with a good dose of D/L! I have one request….let me know what you think of each chapter in and of themselves. **

**Love, El.**

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Chapter 5: Inflame

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"Miss Monroe, you can call me Colt, y'know." Lindsay and the big firefighter made their way past the line outside the small bistro-style restaurant that was decorated in a high-class Western style. Lindsay glanced up at him, craning her neck back to see him better.

"I'm sorry; I didn't realize it bugged you." He looked down at her and chuckled; his laugh was deep, like his voice – it came out like a rumble of distant thunder, but pleasant.

"Doesn't bug me if you wanna call me Mr. Morrow, it's just I'd rather we not be on such formal terms, Miss Montana." By now they were seated at their table, Colt had thought ahead and reserved one, figuring on crowds. Lindsay bristled a bit when he called her Montana – even if he did put "Miss" in front of it.

"Oh, you can call me Lindsay; 'Montana' isn't a nickname I want you to use." Colt eyed her, trying to figure if she was mad that he had called her that, and deciding she wasn't. Lindsay was just setting down the basics.

"Yeah, I understand about coworkers giving you nicknames you don't like. The guys at the house love to call me 'To'." Lindsay quirked her eyebrow at him.

"As in the number? Or 'too'? Or…" she was sort of confused. He chuckled again - she kind of liked that sound - and met her eyes.

"As in 't-o'. They think it's hilarious for someone to call me 'To', then for someone to follow it up with my last name." Lindsay thought for one second and then laughed herself; she got it. To-Morrow. "Yeah, coworkers can be a pain."

Lindsay just shrugged her shoulder, and opened her menu. There were all kinds of Western flavors and styles of food listed. They even had a few Montana items. Everything looked good from where she was sitting, including her company.

* * *

Danny sat on his couch, undershirt on, legs in jeans stretched out onto his coffee table, Yeungling in hand. He had on a Yankees game, they were playing Philadelphia, but Danny's eyes weren't transferring any data from his retinas to his brain. _Wonder what she's doing._ He sipped his beer, and laid his head back against the couch cushions. His ceiling was a fantastic shade of dirty. 

_Oh Lordy, but I got myself in deep this time. She's like the sparkplug that gets my motor revving every time I see her._ Danny blinked, and pulled off his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose. _And damn, but if she continues to suck on her bottom lip like she does, I may not be responsible for my actions._ He closed his eyes. Danny thought about all the ways he thought she was beautiful. He thought about her hair, her eyes, her cheeks, the way she blushed, those lips, that smile, even her cute ears.

Danny groaned straight from his gut, and nursed his beer once more.

* * *

Colt had just told her a story about the first time he had tried to rein in a wild horse, and only managed to get a mouthful of dirt and laugh out of his dad. This is good, she thought. Lindsay warmed at the tales Colt told her; not only did she want to know more about him as a person, but it was just plain nice to hear about Montana from someone who knew its ins and outs as well as herself. 

She smiled at him, and eyes were met over candles. This was about as romantic a first date as you could get; Lindsay was soaking in every minute. "So tell me, do you find fighting forest fires harder than city calls?" Lindsay was finishing dessert, and licked her fork. He grinned.

"Oh, I'm not sure. Both are hard in their own right. I mean, it's physically hard to get water into the middle of a huge brush of fire in the wilderness where there aren't very many access roads, or really any of any kind of quality. But its also tough suiting up to respond to a four alarm in a rickety old apartment complex where you know that you're going to find quite a few women and children in imminent danger."

Lindsay nodded; she knew how hard it could be to work a case where there were children involved. Always so sad. "I think I like the city work better," Colt said. She smiled inside; toasted by the fact that he liked women and children, wanted to save them, and obviously did a good job of it.

He was Prince Charming in a fireproof suit. Lindsay admitted to herself that New York was filled with more genuinely good-hearted guys than she had originally credited it with; she knew of several.

* * *

Danny pulled his head off the couch behind it, and stared at the TV where a player was being thrown out for picking a fight with the umpire. _I can't believe she's out with freakin' Mountain Man. Not when I wish it was me she wanted like that._

Danny sipped out of his bottle. Dangling the beer by the neck, he cocked his head to the left, still watching the screen and not really seeing. _Danny, you can fix this. All you have to do is put in the effort.

* * *

_

Lindsay followed Colt as he led her out of the elevator and up to her door on the 7th of the old building. She had told him where to go and let him lead her there. She relinquished her hold on his fingers as she retrieved her keys from her purse and opened her door. She didn't invite him in – she didn't do that kind of thing on the first date – but rather stood half in her door, half out, looking up at him and smiling.

Colt grinned down at her; she was so beautiful in the dim light of the old hall lamps. She didn't even have to try. "Well Miss Monroe, it's been a completely wonderful evening with you." She nodded her agreement, and he went on, "May I see you again, Lindsay?"

"I'd really like it if you did, Colt." Lindsay smiled at his sweetness. Then Colt leaned forward, just slightly enough to be in her space, but Lindsay didn't mind.

"Lindsay, may I kiss you."

She sighed; ever the gentleman, she thought. "Yes, you may." Colt leaned forward and kissed her ever so gently on the lips and pulled back, bidding her goodbye before walking off down the hallway from where they had just recently come. She touched her lips, giggled girlishly, and went in to bed. There was only one thought on her mind the rest of the night.

* * *

Danny sat up, leaning forward, elbows on knees, beer hanging between them. He didn't particularly relish the thought of Montana out with this guy, but so far as yet, despite his serious longing for her, he hadn't done anything the let Lindsay know he wanted. _Bad_. He shook his head, swiped at his eyes, rubbed some sweat from his brow. Thinking of her always managed to raise his body temperature a bit. 

_Okay, Messer, if you want her, go get her. Stop jerking around, put some effort into the challenge, figure it all out, and get her. Even if she turns you down, at least it won't be for lack of trying._

Danny sighed, grinning into the hand over his face. There hasn't been a girl yet who hasn't fallen for him when Danny worked to get her. _Why stop now?_ Danny resolved then and there that he was going to get Montana, body to body, and soon. No big lug of a fireman was going to stand in his way. _I'm going to scratch that physical itch, so bring it on, Montana!_

What Danny hadn't yet fully realized, was that this thing was about way more than just physicality.

Emotions burn too.

Danny got up and switched off the Yankees, and said aloud: "Game on!"

* * *

well…chapter was short, but hopefully sweet. gotta love emotion! 

love to hear from y'all. **hearts**.

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	6. Smolder

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A/N:** here's the Dos chapter y'all – so so sorry about the very long wait, but we've had some bad thunderstorms up here in the NE which have kept everything plugged into an outlet on the fritz…. 

**and on a joyous note**: this is dedicated to my new baby niece born Friday June 23d…she's so gorgeous!

**Oh!** and one other request: when you review – as i'm sure you will (wink wink, nudge nudge) – i need you to put the notation either '1G' or '2E' in the review text somewhere…i'll tally the choices and the winner will directly impact the outcome of the story – the notation's have to do with the new guy and i'm sure you guys can figure out what they mean, even though i won't tell ---

**Love y'all lots, El.

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**Chapter 6: Smolder

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Danny strode down the crime lab hallway the next day, headed for a cup of coffee from the break room, then his office for paperwork. He had a new air about him. He was a man on a mission today; _I'm going to get her_. Danny had taken care in getting ready for work this morning – it was a big day after all – the first day of his pursuit of Montana. He was going to burn up a night with Montana soon, granted that she wanted him as much as he wanted her, or he was going to self-destruct. He looked good, he felt good, and he had a purpose.

"Um Danny?" Stella was staring at him from one of the break room tables. She simply had this look on her face.

"Yeah, Stel?" Nothing could keep Danny from his two points of focus today: Montana and his case.

"You trying out for GQ Man of the Year?" Stella smiled at him. She knew already the answer he was going to avoid.

"No. I just thought, y'know, that I'd get up early today, and not look like such a bachelor."

Stella grabbed her mug and made for the door, right behind Danny. "Uh huh, sure Danny. Whatever you say. But I think you're up to something."

"Stel, a guy doesn't have to be up to something to dress nicely. Tell her, Flack." Flack had just caught up with them as they passed the elevator bays, and fell in step with Stella, behind Danny, as they all made their way towards his office.

"Tell her what, Messer?" Flack was sort of confused. Stella just shot him a look behind Danny's back, indicating his appearance with her hand.

"Tell Stella that I'm normal, and that I look nice, and that it's normal for me to look nice." Flack choked back a grin in understanding then, and looked at Hawkes, who had since joined the little band of merry followers. "Messer, you are something else," he laughed.

"Danny, you smell like you fell into a bowl of cologne," Hawkes quirked his eyebrow at Stella and Flack from his place behind them. "Don't you think you might have gone a little overboard?" he asked. Danny merely shrugged. _It doesn't matter, as long as she likes it_. The three behind him were still exchanging glances behind his back, Hawkes a little more confused than Stella or Flack. "Danny, is this about that itch you had?" Stella and Flack exchanged a look that said, "Huh?"

Danny laughed briefly. "Nope, Doc, this is about scratching." _And I'm sure going to enjoy scratching this one._ He rounded the corner and came upon his office door, stopping short. Stella would have run into his back if Flack and Hawkes hadn't each caught one of her arms. Inside the office, Lindsay was at her desk and Fire Boy was sitting in Danny's chair.

Determined to maintain civility, Danny opened the door and grinned at everyone. "Morning, everyone, morning, morning! How are we today?" The trio behind him were holding in their grins, as Lindsay merely looked up at him as he stopped next to her chair. He was kind of…different today. "Um, excuse me, Firefighter, you happen to be in my place." Danny was looking at Colt, and Colt was eyeing him back, and Lindsay realized they had never been formally introduced.

"Oh, um, Danny, this is Colton Morrow, and Colt, this is Danny Messer. The one who I'm working the case with," she made all the appropriate gestures. Danny extended a hand and shook Colt's, continuing to eye up the massive guy. Colt excused himself from behind Danny's desk, and switched positions with him. Danny stood behind his desk, smiling all the while, but growling inside. _Listen, you big horse, get outta my place and away from her_. Stella, Hawkes, and Flack were rooted to their spots, and Lindsay was moving her eyes between Danny and Colt.

"I hate to cut this short everyone, but as wonderful as it would be to socialize all day, I have some paperwork, and Montana, you and I have some data to go over." Danny gave a look to the trio at the door, as Colt grunted at the use of the name Montana.

"Oh, so you're the coworker who uses the nickname," Colt addressed him. Danny stared him right in the face, not mincing words.

"I'm the one." _At least, I will be_. Colt merely made a little grunt of noise at the statement, and leaned down to whisper something to Lindsay. She nodded once, said "Eight," and kept her eyes on Danny the whole time. _That's it, Montana, feel the New York heat_. Colt kissed her cheek and made for the door, where the trio had moved out into the hallway. After Colt left, they each mumbled something about doing work, before splitting into their own separate ways. Danny sat at his desk, eyes still locked with Lindsay.

"It's going to be a great day, Montana."

* * *

Danny had gone over the results of the work he did yesterday with Lindsay that morning, and subsequently ran the print he lifted off the victim's tissue through AFIS, IAFIS, and the NYC Firearms Database. So far he hadn't gotten any hits. He glanced over at Lindsay, across from him at her desk, where she was on the phone with Columbia University. She had told him about the mail she had gone through, finding some intriguing letters from Columbia and a couple from pharmaceutical companies which had piqued her curiosity. Now she was trying to determine what connection these letters had to their victim. 

"Yes, yes that's right…NYC Crime Lab…No, the information was dated four months ago, around the 17th of February…Uh-huh, okay…yes, I'll hold." She sighed and bit her lower lip. Danny grinned to himself as he caught the motion out of the corner of his eye. _Soon enough, Montana_. Today, he was pulling out the infamous Messer Charm.

"You know, I really hate it when you call to get information and they transfer you four times and you somehow end up back with the person who transferred you in the first place," she sighed and glanced over at him. "If only we could do it all in person." Danny shrugged and nodded, leaning back in his chair, watching her. "At least they have nice mus…Yes, she was? And that department is located where? Uh-huh, okay, thank you." She hung up and looked over at him.

"Wanna go for a ride?" he grinned.

* * *

The ride to Columbia had been hot and muggy. The temperature was high again today, with a heat index of 103. The air conditioning in the SUV had been a short reprieve. Danny and Lindsay made their way through the lab halls of one of the buildings on campus, looking for a Dr. Jeff Terrill. He was apparently the head of a major research study being done at the university, which was somehow connected to their victim. They turned a corner and came upon a large open air lounge that had at least three dozen children in it. 

In the center was a man wearing a lab coat, talking to what looked like a parent of one of the children. Danny and Lindsay approached, calling the doctor's name. "Yes, that's me." He motioned the adult away, and turned to face them. "You look like people on official business."

"We are, Dr. Terrill; we're here about Cristine Connors. I'm Detective Messer, this is Detective Monroe," Danny introduced them. Dr. Terrill led them away from the lounge area and towards his office.

"I haven't seen her for a while and she's not due in until Friday, I believe." Dr. Terrill sat behind his desk and sighed. "But since you're detectives and you're here on official business, I'm going to assume something has happened to Ms. Connors." Lindsay glanced over at Danny to gauge his reaction to the doctor's guess, and sat in front of the desk. Danny preferred to stand, taking his usual interrogation stance – arms crossed and legs apart, firmly planted.

"Well, you're certainly good at guesswork, Dr. We're here because Ms. Connors was found dead in her apartment Tuesday." The doctor shook his head at Danny's words, but said nothing.

"We discovered some items in her apartment that led us to you, Dr. Terrill," Lindsay jumped in.

"I'm assuming you found some of the information on the study?" They nodded, senses alert for betrayal of guilt. "Yes, she was such a sweet woman. The kids will miss her."

"Um, Dr., would you mind telling us just what exactly it is you're conducting research on?" Lindsay pulled out a notebook to take a few notes.

"Certainly. We're part of a national research study to investigate the connection between enervated olfactory receptors and subsequent loss of transmittable olfactory sensations in children who were produced through artificial means and the possibility of a stunting of emotional development in these children as a result. The children participating in the study section done here at the university are from the tri-state area, and more specifically, they are all products of artificial insemination using both natural parents' reproductive media." Lindsay and Danny were rather interested in how this type of research related to their victim. The doctor continued, "The children you saw range from two years old to eight, and exhibit a variety of symptoms and conditions related to stunted emotional development. These kids act out, can be violent, but some of them just don't know how to show love or affection. They are cold."

Lindsay felt her heart strings tug for what these children were going through, as Danny nodded his head while mentally trying to connect the kids to Cristine Connors. "How was Ms. Connors involved in this research? Was she a parent?" Dr. Terrill hadn't missed the look of sympathy on the female detective's face, but now concentrated on Detective Messer.

"Um, no," he replied, leaning back in his chair, "she was merely a volunteer who came to help run the basic tests and supervise the children during some of the testing processes." He looked to Lindsay, "It seems we have a lack of students interested in helping children in unfortunate circumstances. She nodded. She appeared to be somewhat misty-eyed, but that was not exactly the case.

Danny knew exactly what the doctor was attempting to do; it was the oldest thing in the book. He was dividing them up by their apparent weaknesses, and was subsequently pandering to the idea that Lindsay would be more receptive to his explanation because she was female and he worked with children, therefore she would get all emotional. So Danny would play along with him just enough to throw him off track.

"Betcha those kids get to be a handful, no?" Danny chuckled. Dr. Terrill turned to him.

"Well, they have plausible reason to be, Detective. These children have problems you and I don't have to deal with." _I got my own set of problems_. "It takes dedicated people to work with these cases, people like Ms. Connors. Might I inquire how she died?"

"Well, **that** is the big question," Danny returned. Lindsay made a couple notes, keeping her head down.

"It was very painful, though, Dr. Terrill, that we **can** tell," she said, glancing up to catch his reaction. None. Just a shake of his head and a _tsk_.

"It truly is a shame; the children will all miss her terribly. They were quite fond of Ms. Connors, as was all of the staff. She really was the sweetest woman, as I said before. She had bountiful patience and compassion, and yet somehow seemed to not fall into the trap of naiveté that so often claims those who are willing to give their hearts to better causes." _Oh brother, cut the crap_. "I hope you catch whoever killed her, she didn't deserve to leave the world that way. She was only a volunteer since January, she seemed new to the area, but since then her popularity with the people involved in the study skyrocketed. The children loved her, the parents loved her, the staff loved her…" Danny guessed that he trailed off before he said he had loved her. "She was so caring," the doctor focused his attention on Lindsay intensely, "as women usually are. Much more than we men. She was a gem, and it's so hard to find a good woman these days." Lindsay smiled. _That's it, asshole, just keep pouring it on_.

"Dr. Terrill, do you keep sodium hypochlorite in the lab?" Lindsay smiled sweetly.

He nodded. "Yes, obviously. We use it as a general cleaner and sterilizer." The doctor wasn't sure how that related to Cristine Connors. "Why?"

"Simple curiosity. Do you know if Ms. Connors was taking any drugs or seemed upset enough to take her own life?"

"No, like I said, she was always so sweet. I never once saw her get discouraged, and certainly not on the level needed to commit suicide. I didn't really know her well enough to know about drug use, but prior to joining the research staff she had to submit to a drug test. If she hadn't passed, she wouldn't have been allowed to work here." Danny caught Lindsay's look at him out of the corner of his eye. "Perhaps one of the other volunteers or staff would know better than me her personal history."

"Yeah, perhaps, Dr." Danny nodded. He motioned to Lindsay, who got up and followed him the door. "We may have to return later to talk to some of your staff and you, Dr. Terrill, and if you think of anything, give a call." Danny opened the door for Lindsay, and followed her into the hall. "Looks like you might make your firefighter jealous, Montana. He was hitting all the right notes in there."

Lindsay laughed. "Oh no, and if we were in Montana, notes wouldn't be the only thing that was getting hit." Danny quirked his eyebrow at her. She shrugged, "It's the Montana way."

They had only gotten twenty feet from Dr. Terrill's office, when Danny turned and headed back, leaving a confused Lindsay slowly following. Danny popped his head into the office, "One more thing, Dr." The man glanced up, surprised. "I know I'd love to have a bunch of rugrats of my own, and working with kids and all – don't you ever get the urge?"

"Um…I," the doctor spluttered out an answer. "Yes I suppose so." He was obviously flustered, just the reaction Danny was hoping to see.

"We'll be in touch, Dr. Terrill." Danny sauntered back to Lindsay, passing her and heading to the SUV. She jogged to catch up, and when she did, Danny smirked at her. "We don't need physical blows to get the info here, we just need smarts."

"You just got a reaction out of him that I was trying to get earlier," she seemed astonished at the fact.

Danny licked his lips, and grinned. "That's the New York way."

* * *

The car ride back to the lab was a hot one, since the AC in the SUV kicked out five minutes into the trip. Lindsay seemed especially perturbed by the fact that there was nothing they could do to fix the cold air and they'd had to open the windows. When she sighed in frustration and slumped back into her seat, Danny laughed. 

"This is New York in the summertime, Montana, get used to the heat. The city acts like a convection oven, roasting everyone and everything in it. What's got your panties in a twist?" _If only it were me_.

Lindsay scowled at his mention of her unmentionables, and he just laughed again. It wasn't that she was annoyed by the heat, but rather she was wary of being stuck in a sweaty car ride next to him. There was just something about him today. "Nothing. I just am annoyed because of that doctor. He was completely smarmy."

"This is true." Danny glanced over at her; _something else is bugging her_. "He seemed to think you'd be a very caring woman to children."

"Please. He was just playing to the fact that I'm female and you're male. If you were the female, he would've made cheesy remarks and googly eyes at you."

"Oh is that so?"

"Of course. I was surprised you got the reaction you did out of him at the end. He was very practiced and rehearsed throughout the rest of the interview; he made sure never to slip up in the act. I know he's involved in her death somehow, I'm just not sure what he did."

"It seems our victim had a good heart. Maybe too good for her own good," Danny threw out. He wiped a hand across his forehead, a bead of sweat managed to escape and slide down his temple. Lindsay watched it roll past his eye and over his cheek, until she switched her focus to the beads of sweat over Danny's lips, and when he darted his tongue out to swipe at them, she sucked in her breath.

Danny heard the intake but decided to play innocent. He made a turn and pulled into the underground lot for the crime lab. Lindsay was still fixated on the spot where his tongue had connected with his upper lip; she was dazed. Danny snapped right in front of her nose, "Montana, we're back."

Lindsay startled and followed Danny into the building. _Mm-hmm, come and get it, girl_.

* * *

"What did you mean that the victim might have had a heart too good for her own good, Danny?" Lindsay was a step or two behind him as he breezed his way through the halls to the Latent Lab. 

"All I meant, Montana, is that it might be possible that she was naïve and trusting, and someone took advantage of that. She was taking medications right?"

Lindsay stood next to a workbench, as Danny began sifting through various collected items from their vic's apartment. She watched him pull a couple prescription bottles out and stared as he set them up next to each other in front of her.

"Our victim took allergy medication," Danny stated as he handed Lindsay a prescription bottle of nasal spray.

"That's not uncommon, Danny –"

"Hold on, hear me out." He held up a bottle of Climara. "She was also taking estradiol tablets. I'm sure if we sent her labs back for an ESDI analysis, it'll be elevated."

She nodded, watching as he handed her the last item. It was injection paraphernalia, but there was no drug attached to the use of the equipment, which Lindsay could discern.

She shook her head at him; "But Danny, the needle and syringe are most likely just part of the hormone therapy she seemed to be on. We don't have any other explanation for it being with her other prescriptions."

Danny smiled. "Yeah, I'm assuming she was on some hormonal therapy. There are only two main reasons women go on hormonal therapy: menopause and babies. And given our vic's age, I'm going to say it's safe to assume she wasn't hosting geriatric conventions." He got up and stood just behind her right shoulder, his back to the door. _She'll see just what she's been putting me through_.

"So Cristine Connors wanted a baby," Lindsay stated, as she could feel Danny's breath on her shoulder. It made her shiver inside despite the very warm temperature in the Latent lab. What she didn't know was that she had made him feel this way only a short time ago in a different lab. "No wonder she wanted to volunteer to help those children. She was feeling her maternal clock ticking."

"Mm-hmm," Danny breathed. "Nothing hotter than a woman who feels an urge to do something, anything" he grunted under his breath lightly, but he was close enough to her ear that she heard it – and it made her stomach knot with fire. _Fell the urge yet, Montana?_ "What I meant before," he licked his lips as they neared the junction between her neck and shoulders, "was that maybe Cristine Connors went to help those kids because she was big-hearted." Neither was wearing a lab coat, and Lindsay knew only thin clothing separated them. He shifted his feet behind her – knowing what he was doing to her, and doing it on purpose – moving around to face her at an angle. "And because it stoked her maternal fires," Danny's mouth was moving towards her jawline. _She has beautiful skin, I wish I could taste it_. Lindsay was doing nothing to stop him, because if she had been an iceberg headed for the Titanic at this point, the boat would've stayed afloat because she was melting fast.

The pure heat that was creating palpable friction between them seemed to have sent electromagnetism through her feet and into the floor; she couldn't move – even if she had wanted to. Danny licked his lips, eyes on hers as she watched his mouth move on an arc two inches over her cheek bone towards her nose. _Come on, Montana, come on_. "Maybe the good Dr. Terrill wanted to help Cristine stoke those maternal fires," he moved over her mouth. "But perhaps his experiment went all wrong and murder was the only recourse. Murder with a little heat."

"Maybe he figured a little heat never hurt anybody," Danny's mouth was now a mere inch from her own, and her eyes flicked from his gorgeous lips up to his burning gaze, which seemed to be penetrating her eyes, "much." _That's it, short of breath and looking dangerously sexy_. Danny watched her eyes for signs that she didn't find him physically desirable, unlike how much he wanted her. His plan was working. She sucked in a rakish breath, sighed out, "Yes," which was more of an allowance for what was about to happen than an affirmation of her agreement with his theory, and waited for him to kiss her. Man, did she want him to kiss her! _Yes, ma'am, Montana!_

And he would have.

If Adam hadn't walked in with some news.

* * *

He didn't seem to notice the incredibly fiery moment happening between the other two people in the room. "Hey guys, I have some news for that fire case you guys are working. We were going over some of your victim's personal items and we pulled prints off a couple of items. One set of prints was found on her bathroom medicine cabinet, and we ran those through the system without getting any hits." He looked up at them. By this point, Danny and Lindsay were a good two feet apart, with Danny focusing all his attention on Adam and the case, leaving Lindsay staring at him and confused and wound up tighter than a pop can of biscuit dough. 

"What about the other prints, Adam?" _This couldn't have worked out better. Much as I wanted to kiss her, now I can leave her wanting something she didn't get more than if she had gotten it. _

"Well they were pulled off of her kitchen counter and then again, we found more prints from this individual in the bedroom. Which I guess would mean that this person had some kind of very personal relationship with the victim. I mean, they would have to, because they were in her bedroom and you know how women get about their personal space and their—"

"Adam!" Danny cut him off. "Whose prints were they?"

"Oh, um, they came back from the medicinal prescription database, matching a Dr. Jeffrey Terrill." Gotcha bastard. Lindsay turned to look at Adam.

"So the good doctor lied. Big shocker there," Danny joked. Adam smiled at him, before turning to Lindsay.

"Lindsay, someone called while you and Danny were out, and I think Stella took the message. Something about 'don't forget, dinner tonight' or something. I figured you'd know what it meant," he smiled.

Lindsay looked down at her watch; 7:10 PM. Their shift had been done for over an hour. She started for the door in a hurry, and turned when Danny called out: "Montana!"

"Danny, I gotta go, I'm going to be late!" She backpedaled towards the door.

"We'll finish this later, Montana," he never broke eye contact with her, letting her know exactly what he meant. _Almost, Montana, almost_.

* * *

ok – super super long chapter there, and i'm already working on 7. 

**Leave a review cause I left my heart for y'all**.

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	7. Radiation

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A/N: i know, i know, y'all – it's been a long while since i posted, but i just want to say that my thoughts and wishes go out to anyone who experienced major flooding like my own family did this past week. i haven't posted because when it rains here in PA, it literally pours, and for 3 days my house was an island in a river. so that meant no story update, unfortunately. but we're all well now, so i'll be back on track with regular updates. **

**yay!** another long one here, y'all – because i just found out Carmine Giovinazzo was voted one of TV's sexiest men by TV Guide, and that the editor for Playgirl picked him as her #1 sexiest TV guy. **i heartily agree**!

**Love, El

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**Chapter 7: Radiation

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If he was going to have to spend the night alone in the lab, while Montana was out with her horse of a man, he was going to at least do something that made him feel more in touch with her. Danny had searched all over New York and finally called up a specific restaurant, hoping they made deliveries. "Uh huh, yeah, NY Crime Lab, that's right. Look I know it's far, but trust me, I'll make it worth your driver's trip." _It's not my fault their café is in the far lower corner of Queens and I'm in Manhattan._

While he was waiting for his food, Danny started printing and examining some of the medicine bottles he had showed Lindsay earlier. When he got to the injection equipment which had no corresponding drug to go with it, he tried to get at least a partial off the depressor of the syringe. Nothing viable could be gathered. Then, striking a brainstorm, Danny carried the syringes and other injection stuff down to the DNA lab, hoping that maybe he could get something off the equipment which would help them determine the use of the syringes and who did the using. So far his luck had held out – there was a needle still attached to one of the syringes. _Please let there be some DNA left_.

Danny started the prep work for the PCR process, but ran into a problem with one of the pipette tips. _Ugh! Nothing is going right tonight: no Montana kiss, she's out with that guy, and I'm stuck here with broken equipment_. He audibly groaned.

"What's got you so frustrated, mi amigo?" Adam strolled over to check out what Danny had been working on. Danny had continued to extract minute amounts of residue from the needle core, only he couldn't run the tests without a working pipette system.

"Can you see if you can fool with the pipette rotator, because I can't get it to set at .5 micro Liters?" Danny handed the tool to Adam, who had slid into a pair of latex gloves.

"Did you try to reset to default before cranking the turn shaft to the left before clicking it to the 0.500 box? Sometimes I find the setting mechanism gets jammed if it isn't turned precisely." Danny shrugged, mumbled something about 'being so high-tech nothing works right,' and pulled off his own gloves. "Listen," Adam said, "I actually came in here with a purpose. There's a guy in the break room; he has the most awful smelling takeout bags with him and he said he's looking for you. What did you order that smells so bad?" Danny handed a couple samples over to Adam.

"Never mind that. Can you run a PCR on these when you finish fixing that thing?" Adam nodded and said it'd be done in a jiff, and Danny headed for the break room. But before he could make it out the lab door, Adam called out: "It's not more bugs, is it Danny?" Danny chuckled and kept going; _Ok, food's here. Moving on to Phase 2 of the plan_.

* * *

Danny was just unwrapping his meal, when Stella strode into the room looking for some fresh coffee as a boost. "Danny, what in the name of all that's good are you eating?" She turned to look at him, sipping her coffee, and wrinkling her nose. He seemed to be trying to figure out how to actually eat the takeout he had ordered.

"It's a Rocky Mountain Oyster, Stell. You want a bite?" he had just picked up the sandwich, turning it all around, examining it rather skeptically.

Stella nearly choked on her coffee. She stared at him, "Danny, can I ask you something?" He shrugged as he started lifting his sandwich to his mouth. "Why are you about to eat bull's testicles for dinner?"

This time Danny spluttered, and threw the sandwich down onto the table. "They're what!" Danny coughed and moved his chair back, as if the meat in the sandwich was still attached to the bull. By this time, Stella was laughing so hard she could barely breathe.

Clutching her abs, she gasped, and said, "You didn't know what Rocky Mountain Oysters were?"

"No, I didn't! All the thing said was that it was an authentic Western sandwich. It said nothing about bull's balls." Danny groaned at the thought of his wasted dinner, then groaned again at the thought of the extra big tip that he gave the guy for delivering the dinner he wasn't eating.

Stella had somewhat controlled her laughter. "Oh Danny, Danny." She sighed, "Come with me and let's go get some real dinner – my treat." He looked at her suspiciously, afraid she might trick him into doing something he didn't want to do. She tugged his arm, pulling him up from his chair, "Come on, Danny, I don't bite. Let's go get some good food. I promise it'll be worth your while!" She dragged him out the door, leaving the testicle meat behind.

* * *

"So, Danny, isn't this pizza much better than the takeout you were going to eat?" Stella grinned at him across the little plastic pizzeria table.

"Hell yes! I am not eating bull's testicles for anyone, no matter what the reason." He took a rather large bite out of his folded slice of mushroom. As he concentrated on not getting the dripping cheese stuck in his facial hair, Stella watched him, eyes holding laughter. 'He doesn't even realize that he just let slip his little plan to eat a food he thinks Lindsay likes,' Stella thought.

Danny looked up and caught her staring with an amused look on her face. "What? What is it?" He rubbed his face, "I know, I know, if I shaved I wouldn't have this problem." At that, Stella broke into a full belly laugh.

Danny just looked completely perplexed. "Oh Danny! You make me laugh," Stella managed between gulps of air; he quirked an eyebrow at her. Her amusement finally subsided enough to talk. "You wanna tell me why you were so hell-bent on eating an authentic Western meal?" Danny eyed her, unable to tell whether she was teasing or serious. "One, I might add, that is popular in a state that starts with an 'M' and ends in –ontana?" Danny stifled a groan; _Man, I knew she had ulterior motives. She's always able to get crap out of me that I don't want her to know – she's like Montana in that way_. At his last thought, his eyes took on a whole new look, and Stella, being a trained scientific observer and all, caught the change instantly.

"Babe," she reached across the table and patted his hand, much like a big sister, "you have got it bad!"

"I don't…Look it's not…what?" Danny stuttered out. "Got what?" _Yeah, that's it. Go with the totally obvious lie and 'pretend ignorance'_. Stella grinned. _Okay, new approach, because she obviously didn't buy that_.

"Listen, I'm not…" _gather your thoughts_, "It was just an impulse. I didn't mean for you to make it into a huge production. I just wanted to…" Danny trailed off, looking sheepish and ducking his head to stare at his mostly finished pizza.

Stella's face took on a serious look, but there was still a tiny twinkle in her eyes. "Danny, I think it's sweet that you want to get to know what makes Lindsay who she is," Danny looked up at her, a slight look of shock on his face, "but," Stella continued, not bothering to stop and mollify him, "you are going about this all wrong."

"Stell, I appreciate that you care and all, but this is, I mean, I'm not sure, but I can handle it. It's just impulse acting on attraction, so I've got things worked out," he said. _Is there any way we can still manage to avoid having this conversation?_

Stella knew it was about way more than just attraction, but she kept quiet about that part, opting rather for, "No, Danny, you obviously don't have things under control." He shuffled his shoulders and Stella knew she was treading dangerous waters – if she didn't say the right things, he'd just get angry and belligerent and leave in a huff. "Danny, Lindsay is out with someone else and you're here with me, only because I saved you from eating a bull's genitals." He wasn't looking at her, but at least he was still in his seat and listening. "I've seen the look on your face lately, especially when her firefighter has been around, and I'm not going to help you with your little plan – mainly because I'm not going to add 'office pimp' to my resume." At this, Danny balked a little, but Stella cutoff his coming objection to her statement with, "oh please, Danny, let it go. You know your reputation precedes you." _Yeah, yeah. Rebel badboy who made good, but still loves and leaves_. "I am, however, going to let you in on a couple of secrets."

Danny lifted his eyes; Stella could see a war raging behind those gorgeous blues. She could tell that Danny wanted Lindsay at least physically – anyone with eyes and hormones knew that. But Stella could see in his eyes a tinge of some emotion besides lust; it was well hidden, but it seemed like Danny was beginning to pull this new set of emotions to the forefront. She just wanted to help him do it right.

"That obvious, Stell?" Danny sighed, resigned to the fact that she ha him completely pegged. _At least she thinks it's all physicality – and that **is** all this is_. He was too unsure to wonder about anything more than that.

She grinned; "No, but I've been working way too long with you, Danny." He smirked at that. "Now listen to me, because I care, I'm female, and I know these things, will you?"

"Go on, oh Wise One." _This has got to be good_.

"I know that you've been overpowering her with your sexuality…"

"What! How do you know that's true?" _Does everyone know about this freakin' plan!_ "What, did you spy on me?"

Stella rolled her eyes, "Danny, I'm not stupid – give me a little more credit than that." Stella went about finishing her dinner with no more production than if they were having a conversation about work or sports or weather. "It's pretty damn obvious what your plan is, when you corner her in a lab, making her feel the heat that's been radiating between the two of you since she got here. Everyone but you two, apparently, notices it." _I didn't think anyone saw what happened today_. "Or when you shoot her looks that you think no one can see, and when you make remarks about the guy she's dating because you're jealous, but you think that none of us can hear you." _I really need to rethink this plan_.

"I didn't think that I was **that** obvious," Danny said glumly. Stella grinned at him and laughed. "So what is it that you're trying to tell me? To stop trying?"

"No, don't stop trying; as they say, anything worth getting is worth the effort." She let him digest the fact that she wanted him to get the girl. Seeing recognition dawn on his face, she moved on, "However, you need to stop trying so hard. Don't be so aggressive with her – this isn't a Tarzan movie. Lindsay is the sort of girl who is used to Montana guys, which, from talking to her about home, seem to be just like that firefighter we met. They're big and sweet and gentlemanly. She's not used to the forwardness of this city – despite what you might think. So while I insist that you stay exactly as you are," at this she made sure to grab his eyes with her own, "because, Danny, no matter whether you think so or not, Lindsay is very attracted to you - **just as you are**. It **is** my suggestion, though, that you refine your techniques for her." _Hey! No need to get mean here._

Danny's feathers were noticeably ruffled; it is safe to assume no man likes to be told his technique at picking up women is faulty. 'Such a guy,' Stella thought with a laugh. "No Danny, I don't mean you have any problems picking up girls" – _what, does she read my mind?_ – "but this is not just a girl. This is Lindsay."

Danny lowered his head and his voice. Uncharacteristically serious, he said, "Don't you think I know that?" Hesitant, he lifted his eyes to Stella's, afraid he was going to see disapproval at his feelings towards Lindsay. There was none; Stella knew this was not a typical reaction to a girl for him.

"I know, Danny, I know," Stella's heart sagged for the uncertainty she saw in his face, "so do this right, okay." He nodded. "Learn about her – this time without involving the unmentionables of a bull." Danny gave a wry grin. "Do little things for her, be sweet to her, and show her you can be caring, and sensitive, and not just raw sex. Trust me; she knows you can be that!" Stella smirked at Danny's astonishment. "Girls do talk, Danny. You've only shown her snippets of your sensitive side – that time during the interrogation while I was in the hospital, when she cut her head the day Flack got hurt." Danny's eyes glazed over remembering those times, remembering the fleet of emotions that had sailed through him regarding the brunette. _I'd do those things all over again, in a heartbeat, just to keep her from getting hurt_.

"And judging by the look on your face, you know what I'm talking about," Stella wiped her hands on her napkin, just as Danny's phone beeped. Checking it out, he pushed his chair back.

"Time to go?" Stella asked.

"Yeah, sorry, Adam just paged me with an 'URGENT' telling me to come back right away," he said as he started reaching for his wallet.

"Aa ah ah," Stella tsked, "I said it's my treat. You go get the car and I'll pay quickly."

* * *

During the car ride back to the lab, Stella's phone rang. Thinking she might be getting an assignment, she answered quickly, "Bonasera." Danny kept his eyes on the road; he was thinking about their conversation at dinner.

"Oh hi! How was it?" Stella laughed. "Really? That's so sweet. It's a shame it didn't last longer." Danny figured it was safe to assume that this wasn't a work-related call. "Oh yeah? Yeah, that does seem kind of forward, but, you know, he is a sweetheart. Did you not want to?" Danny's eyes were still on the road, but his ears were wide open; _that has got to be Montana_. "Oh I see. Yeah, we all get that way sometimes. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise until you feel good and ready. Always better to be safe than sorry – I oughta know… No no, I'm not, so don't worry. I'm just imparting experience on you so you don't run into the same thing." _I hope she's okay. If Smoky the Bear tried anything on her like what happened with Stella…_Danny tensed at the thought.

"Uh-huh, maybe it's a sign," she laughed - _I wonder how you kill a Grizzly Bear?Is it legal? Oh hell, who cares, I'll do it anyway_ – "Or yeah, it could mean that too," Stella chuckled. "Okay, well, I'll see you in half-an-hour then." Stella folded her phone shut, and grinned over at Danny. He wanted to know so badly what Lindsay had said on her side, but he kept his mouth shut. Stella knew he was trying to appear nonchalantly not interested, and boy! was he failing miserably.

"That," Stella smirked, "was Lindsay." Danny finally turned his head and glanced at her, just before pulling into a parking spot. He got out and went over to open Stella's door and help her out of the vehicle.

"You're learning," she grinned and patted his shoulder at the gentlemanlike behavior. "She's coming in to work on something. She said she'll be here in about 30 minutes; she had to change first." As they made their way up to the labs, each was lost in their own thoughts. Just before Danny turned to look for Adam, Stella laid a hand on his arm. "Remember," she said in a low tone, "it's the little things that make a big impact. Take what I said to heart." With that, she left.

Danny made his way into the lab, grabbing his lab coat as he passed the rack, and replaying what Stella just said. _'Take what I said to heart. Yeah_…he mused; _it's all in the heart_.

* * *

Lindsay entered the Crime Lab building, strolling towards the elevator bay. Her thoughts and feelings were going a mile a minute. Tonight had been a combination of happiness and apprehension, of urgency and hesitancy, and she was left feeling utterly bamboozled. She replayed the events that had led to her current mental state as she rode the elevator up.

First, there was her and Danny's case. They couldn't figure out how their victim caught on fire, they couldn't figure out whether it was the fire or the Clorox that had actually killed her, and they had a semi-suspect, who was really only a lying SOB. Nothing Dr. Terrill had done or said indicated explicit criminal action; he merely was very good at lying. 'He is definitely involved in this somehow, we just need to figure out what that connection is,' she thought to herself. She and Danny were no closer to finding the killer and they needed a break in the case badly.

Then there was that moment in the lab this afternoon, after they had gotten back from interviewing the doctor. She was so sure Danny had been about to kiss her, she even readied herself for it, but then he hadn't and Adam had come in, and Danny ha acted like nothing had even transpired. "Errrgghh," she groaned aloud in frustration. 'Why does Danny have to do this to me now?' she thought. She had finally found someone in this big city who made her feel secure and homey; he was a Montanan after all. Colt was sweet, a gentleman, caring, and had moved to NYC to do what he loved and help those in need – she had to respect that in a person. And he reminded her of home.

'But then again, Danny also does what he loves and helps people,' her conscience chided her. The only difference was that Danny wasn't from Montana, and he wasn't secure or homey. 'No,' Lindsay thought, 'those aren't the only differences between those two.' As much as she tried to make her attraction towards Danny seem irrational by focusing on his reputation and how he was from the 'wrong side of the tracks,' she couldn't quite fully succeed in condemning him. Yes, Colt was a sweetheart, but she had seen Danny's big heart shine through on various occasions: with his brother, with Aiden, with Flack, with his cases.

Dinner tonight with Colt had been good, they got along so well. There were a few glitches and funky vibes felt, but overall Lindsay would rate the night a success. Except that she couldn't bring herself to kiss Colt; 'not yet,' she kept telling herself, 'we can kiss later.' But Lindsay wasn't sure why she wanted to put off kissing him so much, but she knew she'd feel guilty if she did take that step. Without her consciously knowing it, Lindsay's mind was fast creating two categories: Colt was everything Montana and Danny was all New York.

Shaking her head and finding herself arriving at the office she shared with Danny, Lindsay sat down to do some paperwork and mull over the case, hoping to find the break they so desperately needed.

* * *

"Oh good, you're back. Sorry for the crazy page, but what I have to show you, you'll really want to see." Adam grabbed at the newly printed papers sitting in the printer tray. "I ran your sample from the needle, and I was surprised by the results, so I wondered what you might make of it." He handed Danny the results.

"You're sure these are the results from that needle? We didn't find any other evidence to corroborate this in that apartment."

Adam nodded, "Oh yeah. I ran it through, just like you asked." Danny's eyes were hurriedly scanning the page in disbelief. "I fixed the pipettes too, by the way."

"Yeah good work on that. But if these are the results, then this is big news. Super big." Danny licked his lips, hoping these results meant what he thought they did. "Adam, do me a big favor and let's run these one more time. This time we'll compare epithelials from the pill bottles to the DNA results from the syringes." Quickly, Danny and Adam went to work.

* * *

Danny rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, trying to massage out the kinks he had gotten in the last hour and a half, while doing the PCR testing with Adam. In his hands, he held a blue folder with big news. Headed for the break room for some highly caffeinated goodness, he noticed the lights were on in his office. _So, Montana's still here, plugging away at her desk. Wonder why she's here so late._

He entered the break room and brewed a new pot of coffee, as he readied two mugs. Grabbing the coffees, the file, and a muffin, he headed back towards his office and Montana, deciding now was as good a time as any to practice the advice Stella had conveyed to him. That, and he had some big news to tell her. _And I just like being around her, so here goes_.

* * *

Danny opened the door to the office with his butt, keeping the door from swinging into his hand and making him spill the coffee. "Hey Montana, thought you could use a little pick me up." He placed a mug in front of her and the muffin on a napkin. She eyed him in surprise; first, because he was here so late, and second, because he had brought her coffee. She took a sip – 'and he fixed it the way I like it,' she thought. Danny went and sat at his desk opposite her, sipping his own coffee and rearranging paperwork on his desk. "What gives? Why're you here so late?" he asked her, his voice quiet, like the nights in Montana.

"I could ask you the same thing," she said, still feeling a little surprise, but also a small prick of happiness.

"I stayed to do some more work on our case. I was working on the pill bottles and injection equipment."

"I was preoccupied by the case, so I thought I'd come in and do paperwork, and think it all over." She rubbed her eyes, and shifted some papers. "But I haven't seemed to make any progress."

He waved the blue folder at her. "Well I have some big news." She stared at him, he seemed happy, so she hoped it meant he found something to help them find their killer during his testing.

"What's up? Did you find something?" Danny just grinned his trademark half-grin and licked his lips.

"Don't tease me, Danny," she said, 'although he looks damn sexy when he does,' she thought, "Just tell me. What is it?"

Danny smiled a full smile and handed her the folder. She opened it and read the contents, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head. "Danny! Danny, this is big! This means that Cristine Connors had family nearby." He nodded, feeling excited at her excitement. _God, she's gorgeous when she gets excited about a case!_ "These results mean that Cristine had a brother or father nearby, and he used the needle found in her apartment!"

Danny leaned back in his chair, fingers linked behind his head. "Yeah, I was hoping to get some good DNA off those syringes, but I never expected this."

"This is the break we needed; I'm so glad you stayed to work on this. I could just jump over this desk and kiss you, Danny!" _I wish you did.

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**alrighty**, hope you liked it. Big transition chapter there.

**oh,** **before i forget** – let me explain about the 1G and 2E notations… as i said, this is most definitely a D/L story, big time, all the way; but i have two ending types worked out as far as the Montana guy goes – he either turns out to be 1) Good, but Lindsay chooses Danny over him, or 2) Evil, and Lindsay ends up with Danny cause of that. so when i asked for you to pick one, you were picking which ending i'd go with for the Montana guy, not whether it was D/L or not. **D/L ALWAYS**

…**i heart your reviews, they keep me going!**


	8. Kindling

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A/N: okay, new chapter, another long one. oh how i love these. this one is a plot twister, with just enough D/L to hopefully keep y'all pleased. **

**btw**: i decided that Lindsay's going to pick Danny even though Colt is a truly stand-up guy…i realized after i asked y'all's opinions on the subject, that the ending had already kind of worked itself out that way, but just so you know, most people wanted me to keep Colt good, and not make Danny her default choice. i agree.

**Love, El.**

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**Chapter 8: Kindling

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"Seriously, Danny, this is very good news." Lindsay sat looking at the DNA results Danny and Adam had verified shortly before. "Our next step is pulling Cristine Connor's family history; see whether it's a brother or father who we obviously need to talk to." Lindsay took another sip of her coffee, reminded of how sweet it was that Danny had brought her coffee and a muffin. She looked up and found him giving her an odd look. Something made her tingle though.

"I'm already there. I pulled her family history when Adam first showed me the results. It's under the results report," Danny said as he sipped his own coffee. _There's nothing quite like this_. Despite the fact that the Crime Lab never stopped, since crime itself knows no schedule, it was giving Danny very good feelings to sit here in their office with Montana in the quiet stillness of the night. "I'm thinking it won't be her father we're interviewing, since he died from testicular cancer four years ago."

Lindsay flipped through the results report, trying to get to the family history. "So it was a brother then." Lindsay paused a moment in thought, "Maybe she and the brother had a fight over something."

"Maybe they had a falling out and things have been pretty tense between them ever since, leading to one final fight." Danny lowered his eyes as he said this, staring intently at the mouth of his coffee cup. He need not say anything for Lindsay to know just where his thoughts were right then.

"How has he been, Danny?" she asked in a soft voice. _How does she read my mind like that? How did she know I was thinking about my brother?_ He looked up at her, meeting her gaze, feeling the tension building between them.

"He's been better; he's been on the mend, but it's slow, ya know, real small steps," Danny sighed. "I've had…we're better. We need to be." Only someone who had known Danny for a very long time would be able to tell that his eyes had just misted over from the intense emotions that were tumbling through him. Only someone who had known him forever…

And Lindsay. She saw the war raging behind his blue eyes, and felt her heart constrict for him. 'Just like you'd feel for any other friend in a hard situation,' she thought. 'Uh-huh, yeah right,' she laughed at herself. Danny had taken on a faraway look, before shrugging his shoulders and rubbing the bridge of his nose after taking off his glasses. "Um, so, tomorrow, we're going to have to track down this brother."

Lindsay sighed and looked back at the family history report in front of her briefly before nodding. "Hmm, yeah, looks that way. And I think we should probably pay another visit to the good doctor at Columbia. Obviously things aren't adding up here: he lied, and I want to know why."

Lindsay yawned and rubbed the back of her neck, rolling her head back and forth over her stiff shoulders. Danny watched her, using all his self-control to keep his itching fingers from moving behind her to massage her neck. He ran a hand through his hair and over his face. _I'm glad I'm the one keeping her up and not Paul Bunyan_. "Montana, you sure you don't wanna go home and hit the sack?" Lindsay looked up at him, questions in her eyes. Danny caught the briefest glimpse of her quickening pulse in them as well. 'Cool it, Lindsay,' she chided herself, 'don't go getting excited just because Danny mentioned bed.' "I mean, I don't know about you, but I've had a long day." Danny looked at his watch – it was past midnight – and they'd both been at work since 7AM. _She single-handedly makes 'workaholic' a pleasant thing._

Lindsay picked at the muffin Danny had brought her, not making any moves to wrap things up or call it a night. Danny kept his eyes on her, beginning to worry whether she was alright or not. _That guy better not have pulled anything, I swear to God!_ "You okay, Montana?" Danny was still leaning back in his chair, his legs stretched under the desk in front of him.

"Yeah, I guess," Lindsay shrugged. She tilted her head to the right and didn't meet his gaze. "I don't know, I guess I'm just tired." _Just tired, my ass_.

Danny tried for a lighthearted approach; "I thought you and the big fireman had a date tonight? He didn't try and put the moves on you, did he?" Never did Danny expect the reaction he got.

Lindsay sighed, a hint of tears in her voice, and put her forehead down on her crossed forearms on her desk in front of her. "Oh, there is seriously something wrong with me!" Danny wasn't exactly sure whether he should say something or just reach across and comfort her, and in his indecision he didn't do anything. "I a grown woman, he's a sweetheart and we've been on more than one date – shouldn't I have let him kiss me tonight?"

Danny swallowed. _Oh man, I am not the person you wanna ask that question to, Montana_. "There's nothing wrong with you, Montana, trust me." She looked up and met his eyes. "Maybe it just wasn't the right moment tonight for that kind of thing. Maybe you were too tired. It could be a lot of things, but it definitely isn't you." _There is not a damn thing wrong with you, woman_. _Damn_, Danny bit back a groan. Despite the sweet softness of his low and somewhat gravelly voice – he was tired too, after all – Lindsay could clearly see the heat she had felt earlier that day simmering hot and deep, just behind the surface of his blue eyes. "Don't let anyone pressure you into doing anything you aren't ready to do."

Lindsay could feel the heat between them bubbling to life and aimed for a laugh, but fell a little short of convincing. "Yeah, thanks, Dad," she joked sarcastically, half-smiling at him. Something sparked inside him at his small victory of getting her to smile, even just a little bit. _I could feed off this feeling_. Looking down at her hands as she picked at her muffin again, Lindsay sighed softly. "He's such a sweet guy, I feel like I should want him to kiss me, but I feel…" she searched for the right word, "confused. It's like my brain's telling me I want this to happen, but another…part," _yeah, I know what part_, "of me is holding back." Obviously she was in some kind of sharing mood tonight, as her thoughts and feelings just kept pouring out of her mouth, but even so, Lindsay refused to discuss her heart in such explicit terms with Danny. She was still too unsure of him at this point.

"Well maybe that's your mind's way of telling you something. Maybe you're just thinking too hard about this. Maybe you just need to **feel**," he said, looking into her face, keeping a steady gaze locked with her. _She's dangerous, this Montana girl_. Lindsay could feel warmth rolling off him in waves, completely enveloping her. And she found herself telling him her dreams, her desires, and how she felt about life, love, and Montana firemen.

And while Danny was busy being a friend to her – one she truly valued – he was also busy falling head over heels.

* * *

_Montana makes getting no sleep look good_, Danny yawned and stretched his arms over his head. He hadn't gotten home until very late the night before, _but it was worth every minute spent in this office with her_. In appreciation for his sweetness the night before, Lindsay placed a cup of coffee on his desk when she came into the office. They were together in their office to go over the family report in detail in preparation of their coming day. Lindsay shuffled some papers in the file folder, pulling out the family history as Danny checked all the relevant databases for any hits on men related to Cristine Connors.

"Danny, did you read this family report carefully last night?" Lindsay's eyes were glued to the page she was reading, but her hand was anxiously reaching across their desks to tug at his arm. 'And what a strong arm it is,' she thought off topic.

"Not especially. Why? What's up?" _What's got her so alert?_

"Because it says on page two that Cristine Connors had a brother," she started; just as Danny's monitor beeped that he'd gotten no hits for their vic's male siblings.

"Yeah, Monroe, we figured that out last night, remember? Her father is dead." He leaned his elbows on his desk, waiting for her to tell him what it was she was looking at.

"Yes, I know that," she sighed exasperatedly, "but listen. It says here that her brother was adopted out of the family when he was a baby – 18 months, to be exact." She paused, before adding: "It also says that he was born in 1993." Lindsay glanced up and saw that he realized what she was getting at.

"That means that he's only 13 years old. He was much younger than Cristine," Danny stated. "Does it say why he was put up for adoption?" _Things just got a little more interesting_.

"No, it just states that the father relinquished his rights prior to birth, and that Cristine's mother put the boy up for adoption for private reasons." Doing a little quick math, Lindsay sat back and said, "Cristine would've been 18 when her brother was born. At 18, a child is usually getting a taste of their first bit of freedom, heading off to college…"

"Sowing their wild oats," Danny interjected with a lopsided smirk. _What were you like at 18, Montana?_

'Damn,' Lindsay thought as she rolled her eyes at him, but smiled all the same. "We're talking about most 18 year olds, Danny, not you." _You shoulda seen me at 18, Baby!_ Danny smiled at her teasing, but stayed silent. "Most 18 year olds don't want to be anywhere near their family, let alone help their mother through a pregnancy and infancy."

Danny shrugged. "I wonder if our vic even knew her mother had a baby," Danny became lost in thought. "Maybe this was a family reunion gone bad."

"With her brother being 13, Danny?" Lindsay skeptically raised an eyebrow at him. He shrugged again. "Think about it: we're not even sure she knew about her brother, let alone whether she had met him face-to-face, so I highly doubt that she was set on fire or injected with Clorox by a 13 year old boy."

"True," Danny allowed, "but, he obviously had some kind of connection with her, because there's still the matter of the injection equipment we found in her apartment with his DNA on a needle still attached to one of the syringes. Obviously he would've had to have been in her apartment for that to happen."

"What we need to do is find him."

Danny took a sip of the coffee she brought him. "If Cristine could do it, so can we."

* * *

Danny and Lindsay separated after their meeting in the morning, one going off to scan medical records in the state for information regarding the circumstances surrounding the vic's brother's birth and adoption, the other was interviewing various coworkers and colleagues at the law firm where Cristine worked.

"She was gentle and a real lady; there wasn't anyone who couldn't get along with Cristine," a woman named Kelly said when Danny asked her about the vic; she had worked in the same firm, for the partner next door to the one Cristine had worked for.

"So you can't think of any reason why someone would want Ms. Connors dead?" Danny switched the phone from his right ear to his left and reached for a new pen – the one he had ran out of ink.

"No, God no. She was too much of a good girl," Kelly sniffed a bit, "she was even thinking of having a baby, I think. She said something in passing about taking female hormones. She loved life, it's only fitting that she'd want to share that with a child."

"Did you know that she had been volunteering at a Columbia University study that deals with children? She helped take care of the children involved," Danny jotted something down.

The woman was silent for a moment, before answering, "No. But that sounds just like Cristine, I mean, we weren't like best friends or anything, but it doesn't surprise me that she did that."

"Well I believe that's all I needed to ask you, Ms. Hoster, but if we need anything else or you think of anything, give a call." Danny hung up and stretched his neck, before reaching out and dialing the last number on his list – Cristine Connors immediate boss, Dave Galen.

"Galen speaking," the man had a kind of a harsh tone about his voice that made it sound like he'd been a smoker for one too many years.

"Mr. Galen, this is Detective Danny Messer with the NYC Crime Lab. I'm calling in regards to your legal assistant Cristine Connors who was killed recently." The man did a combination grunt and cough which had Danny's ears on alert for whether it indicated some kind of guilt or not. "Are you available at present to answer some questions I have for you?"

"Uh, yeah, I've got a few minutes, go ahead." Despite his gruffness, Danny had to admit the man sounded like he genuinely wanted to cooperate.

"Were you very well acquainted with Ms. Connors?"

"About as acquainted as a boss and assistant can get in so short a time. She was a very hard worker, and she was ambitious to boot. The firm was helping to pay her way through law school, on condition that she work some amount of time at the firm in repayment after her graduation and admittance to the bar." _Pretty good job she had_.

"'So short a time,' you said. What did you mean by that?" Danny asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Well I simply meant that eight months isn't a very long time to get to know someone extremely well, especially if they work for you." _So Cristine Connors was only working there 8 months?_

"How was it that she was only working at your firm for eight months?"

"She only moved to the area last December, and before that she had worked at another firm upstate for a short period of time. Her former boss was a law school buddy of mine, so when he sang her praises, I listened. She had applied here without my knowledge of who she had worked for previously, but after I found out she had worked for Jay and he had recommended her so well, I immediately hired her. She was great; always on the ball, never late, stayed extra hours. That's why I was the one behind the push to pay for her continued education."

"I see. Were you aware of any medical or family problems she'd been having, or anyting of that nature?" _Her boss would know if she'd needed leave for some kind of family emergency or anything_.

"Not that I'm aware of, no. She never once asked for leave or vacation time, even over the holidays. I remember thinking that that was sad for her, but a bonus for us since she was always willing to do extra work for people on leave. Did she have such problems as you described?" _Nice try, but you're not getting that info out of me_.

"Unfortunately I can't discuss that with you, as I'm sure you're aware. However, I have to ask: were you aware of any work or activities she participated in outside of her work at the firm?"

"I believe she worked with children somewhere, but I don't really know any of the details. I only know it was children because I saw a picture one of them had drawn on her desk one day and asked her who'd given it to her. As far as I knew, Cristine didn't have any family either in the city or the rest of the state. I'm pretty sure she was on her own." The man stopped talking for a minute, and Danny could hear him murmur something to someone in his office. "I'm sorry to cut this short, Detective Messer, but I have a meeting in a few moments. Did you need anything else?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I have everything I need. If not, we'll definitely be in touch."

The man grunted his compliance. "Certainly. I hope you figure out what happened, Detective, Cristine was such a great person that this is tragic. She wanted the best life had to offer, she wanted to travel, had mentioned something about Russia and China, and had once said she moved to the city to make some dreams possible for herself. It's all really a shame."

Danny made the obligatory assurances at hard work on her case and hung up. _So Cristine Connors was new to town…

* * *

_

While Danny was busy doing his phone interviews, Lindsay was sifting through file after file from state hospital records on births filed under Connors, Baby Boy. After about an hour and a half, she found the record she was looking for. Baby Boy Connors was born at 4:17AM, on March 11, 1993 at Hudson North General Hospital – most people called it HANG Hospital since its abbreviation was HNG Hospital. Other than the requisite tests and a placenta pathology that were preformed at HANG – some cord blood analysis as well as bilirubin and typing – the baby boy was discharged along with his mother after a 3 day stay.

Shifting some files across the lab table in front of her, Lindsay picked up another manila folder. This one contained faxes she had gotten throughout the day, as well as printed copies of information regarding the baby's adoption. The baby's father had signed a relinquishment waiver when Cristine Connors' mother was 22 weeks, and it was filed with the state shortly after that. From the time the baby was born until he was about 14 months old, Lindsay could find little to no information regarding his health or lifestyle or that of his mother. There was no record that Cristine ever knew she had a baby brother; from what Lindsay could piece together, Cristine had left her mother's home at 17, moved in with an aunt who lived around Poughkeepsie, and later attended SUNY at Albany. As far as Lindsay could tell, Cristine didn't get along with her mother as she grew up, and moved as soon as an opportunity presented itself. Her parents had a divorce petition filed on record dating January 1987. 'So her parents divorced before her mother got pregnant with her brother, but her brother is her father's biological son,' Lindsay pondered.

Turning back to the medical file to try and figure out how that scenario was even possible, Lindsay couldn't help but feel sorry for their vic on a whole new level. It must have been hard having your parents divorce when you were just reaching puberty, not getting along with your mother, your father pretty much dropping out of your life, and wanting to do something with yourself so badly that you move away from home just to create a better life for yourself. 'Thank God my childhood was much easier than all that,' Lindsay thought. But even as she had that thought, her mind turned to Danny. From all that she could gather, his childhood had been somewhat of a trying time, what with his family being watched, and his brother being in a gang and growing up in a rough and tumble neighborhood. 'It's amazing what he's done for himself,' she smiled, 'He's amazing.'

Lindsay barely had time to control her thoughts and finish reading the file in front of her, when the object of her thoughts breezed through the doors.

"Monroe, what say we go back to Columbia now and ask that doc to explain why he felt the need to lie to us?" _Any excuse, including legitimate work, is a good one if it means alone time with Montana_.

Lindsay got up, and pulled off her lab coat. "Sure, give me just one second to clean up these files."

"What're you reading in here?" Danny was helping her stack the files in some kind of organized chaos.

"The medical and adoption files for Cristine's brother. So far nothing is jumping out at me as being unusual, and I still can't find any reasons why her mother gave the baby up for adoption." She carried the files out of the lab as Danny opened the door for her. Stopping by their office to grab her notepad and some other things, Lindsay and Danny then made their way to the garage under the building.

Opening the car door for her, Danny shrugged, pretending not to notice her somewhat shocked expression at the gesture. "Well, we'll think about all that on the way. And this time, the AC works."

* * *

Danny and Lindsay made their way into the lounge where they had found Dr. Terrill the first time they visited Columbia, but this time he wasn't there. Stopping to ask one of the study workers where they could find him, they headed down a small offshoot hallway to a room with large windows in which sun poured in on about a dozen children, ranging in ages from about 3 to 16, working at what looked like various activity stations. Dr. Terrill was standing behind a young girl of about 6, and was making notes on a clipboard when Danny and Lindsay approached.

"Doctor, we need to have another chat," Danny stated by way of greeting. Lindsay held in her smile at his bluntness. Dr. Terrill made no answer, wrote something down, and bent over to say something to the girl before turning to acknowledge their presence.

"We cannot chat here." His voice brooked no room for argument, but he made no move to usher them into another room or his office. "I will only speak with one of you, since I barely have time for this interruption. We are at a very important interval in the study and my presence is crucial."

Danny was annoyed now. "Listen, Doc, hold in your ego long enough for us to explain this visit. You lied and we want answers, so don't try and sidestep us."

The doctor looked at Lindsay with what he hoped was a glance of commiseration at her having to work with such an unyielding oaf, and leaned towards her. "Detective Monroe, I'll be glad to let you interrupt me for a very brief chat, if only you follow me into the next room." The doctor turned back to Danny with a look of impatience on his face.

Realizing they needed answers more than a fight, and knowing that Montana could be just as crafty as anyone during questioning a suspect, Danny took a step back, and motioned towards Lindsay with his hand, "I'm sure Detective Monroe will be happy to accommodate you, Dr. Terrill. I'll simply stay here while you guys talk."

With a cautioned glance at Danny, Lindsay turned and followed Terrill out of the room and into the adjacent study room. Danny turned his attention to the children at the activity stations surrounding him. Finding a adult volunteer nearby, he asked what part of the study this room was used for.

"The study participants come into this room to work at various stations, where they'll alternately find age-appropriate activities and also items with scents attached so as to incite various emotional attachments within the children to the activities. The children can sometimes work at the stations for hours without showing any signs of progress, depending on their level of olfactory perception." After the explanation, Danny let him move away to a lab bench which had various types of respirator-looking equipment on it. The guy seemed to be taking them apart and cleaning them.

* * *

"Detective Monroe, I realize I wasn't fully forthcoming with you and your partner the other day, and I apologize." Lindsay tensed at his smarmy politeness, alert and searching for suspicious items as she was in interrogation mode now.

"Dr. Terrill, you weren't merely not forthcoming, you flat out lied." Terrill visibly tensed at the accusation.

"Well I understand the delicacy of the situation and I'd been hoping to avoid relating every intimate detail with you." He looked rather uncomfortable.

"Are you saying that you and Cristine Connors had a sexual relationship?"

"Oh Lord no! All I meant was that I didn't think my having been in her apartment would have been something you needed to know."

"It is definitely something we need to know when your fingerprints are found in the victim's bedroom and again in her kitchen. How did they get there, Dr.?" Lindsay kept herself distanced and cold from his fake, unctuous manner towards her. 'If there'd been a role for a creepy-doctor-who-could-have-killed-the-victim-and-is-now-hitting-on-the-CSI on Broadway, he would have won it hands down,' she thought.

"Oh well that is all easily explained," he motioned away at her, as if trying to motion away her professionalism.

"So explain." Lindsay didn't budge.

* * *

Danny wandered around the room, glancing at various workstations where the children were being occupied by various activities: books, puzzles, maps, questionnaires, scent identification, etc. He stopped now and again to watch the person at the workstation doing the activity, but didn't interfere with anyone.

He came upon a pubescent male who was hunched over a workstation, murmuring to himself. Danny stopped and looked down to see what he was working on and saw a puzzle map of the United States. Most of the states were removed from the wood backing of the puzzle and were scattered in various array around the workstation table. Only Maine, California, Tennessee, Arkansas, Arizona, and Wyoming were in their correct positions on the puzzle. All the other states were turned face-down.

Danny thought he had heard the boy murmur something about population and then again something about birds, when the boy turned over the state piece in his hands and placed Kansas on the backboard. "What is it that you're figuring out before you put down each piece?" Danny asked him. The boy looked up, somewhat surprised at having been spoken to, and blinked as if in his own world. Danny noticed that there was no presence of any kind of emotional response to his query in the boy's affect at all. _This must be what Dr. Terrill meant when he said these kids are cold_.

After a couple minutes silence, and what felt like quiet judgment on Danny's part, the boy answered. "I have to name the state, the capitol, the land size ranking of the state, the official date of statehood, the current governor, the state's population, and the state bird before I let myself place the piece on the puzzle." _Damn_, Danny thought, _it must take him forever to finish this_. Danny picked up a state piece off the workstation surface; he could tell it was New York even though it was face-down in his palm. "So," hetold the boy, "show me how this works."

* * *

"We weren't friends. That part was true, Detective. I merely went to her apartment because she asked me to come over and help her with some medical information she was researching. She said it was for a case for the law firm she worked for, and I had no reason not to believe her." Dr. Terrill was having a hard time meeting Lindsay's eyes.

"That explains the fingerprints in her kitchen, but not the ones in her bedroom. How did they get there, Dr. Terrill?" He squirmed a bit.

"Well she said she had something she wanted my opinion on, that it was in her bedroom. Maybe it wasn't very polite of me, but I followed her in there. She had wanted to show me a medicine bottle; it was for some kind of allergy medicine I thought. I suppose I must have touched some of her furniture or something while I was in there." Lindsay looked anything but convinced by this explanation.

"So you're telling me that you did not sleep with Cristine Connors?"

The doctor looked affronted; Lindsay almost laughed in his face. "I am a married man, Detective Monroe! I would never stray from my wife." 'So said many a cheating man before you,' Lindsay thought ruefully. "There was no reason for me to cheat on my wife with Ms. Connors."

"Humans do many things without having reasons for them, Doctor," Lindsay replied slyly.

"Yes, well, I never even got that sort of vibe from Cristine. She never seemed interested in marriage or even sex. I thought that was somewhat weird considering she was a rather attractive woman."

"I'm sure it'd be hard for you to imagine any woman not wanting to sleep with you," Lindsay retorted. The doctor merely nodded his head absently, as if he agreed with what she said but hadn't realized it was really an insult. "If you aren't being 'fully forthcoming' with me this time, Dr. Terrill, you can rest assured that my partner and I will be back." The doctor looked at her apprehensively, as she stared him down before turning to leave, "Only next time, we'll bring our friend – a warrant for your arrest – with us."

* * *

_This kid is smart. What's taking Montana so long?_ Danny was standing in front of the boy holding another state puzzle piece, as the boy was attempting to list the population of Pennsylvania. "What's your name?" Danny interrupted.

"Evan," he replied tersely, before rattling off the number - 12,429,616. "But that's only the 2005 estimate," he added.

Danny nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Lindsay approaching them. "What is your favorite state?" Evan asked him.

Danny didn't answer the question, but rather replied that the state bird of Pennsylvania is the Ruffed Grouse. Evan turned over the Pennsylvania piece and placed it in its proper location on the backboard. Lindsay had reached them by this point, giving Danny a look of amusement at seeing him finish a puzzle with the boy. "You ready to go, Messer?" she asked, turning for the door. Danny made a step to the side to follow her, as she now had her back to him, but Evan stopped him.

"You didn't answer my question." Evan looked up at him, waiting for Danny to reveal his favorite state.

Danny tossed the puzzle piece in his hand onto the backboard where it landed face-up. "That one," he said, then followed Lindsay out of the lab. Behind him he could hear Evan murmuring, "Montana, the capitol is Helena. It ranks fourth in land size…"

* * *

It took them a little longer to get back to the lab due to construction and traffic, but during the trip Lindsay had gone through some of the folders she had brought with. As she and Danny were making their way through the Crime Lab lobby and towards the elevators, she was scanning the medical file on Baby Boy Connors. "Danny," she out her hand on his arm much as she had done that morning in their office. _I could get used to this little habit of hers_. "It says in this file that Cristine's brother was conceived through artificial insemination using her mother's egg and her father's sperm."

"Isn't Terrill's study focusing on olfactory-caused emotional problems in children artificially conceived using the parent's own reproductive media?" he asked her.

"That's exactly what I was thinking. What if Cristine volunteered at Columbia because she found out her little brother was part of a study there? I think we need to find out if our vic's brother is part of that study, Danny." They made their way back towards their office. Lindsay's phone went off in her pocket. "Monroe." She smiled, and Danny didn't miss it. "Oh hi, yeah I was going to call you later. Good I'm glad," she said, still walking next to Danny. His ears were on high alert; he knew it was the fireman calling. "Yeah, I won't be able to tonight, and there are still some things I want to get done here before I head home, but I'll definitely see you tomorrow. That sounds great, and I'll bring some sunscreen." Danny opened their office door and ushered her in with a hand on the small of her back, an action Lindsay definitely caught, just as she folded up her phone and put it back in her pocket.

"Where are you going tomorrow that you'll need sunscreen?" Danny asked, trying to not sound as jealous as he felt.

Lindsay rolled her eyes at him, giving him a look that said, "Duh!" "I'm going to be at that big baseball game between CSI and our neighboring fire station." She looked at him archly, "Aren't you going to be there too?"

Danny scratched the back of his head, _Is that tomorrow already?_ "Um yeah, I guess I am."

"Well I'll definitely be there, because Mac's making us all play and Colt said that he'll see everyone tomorrow, since it's his station house we're playing." She smiled again, more to herself than anyone, "He told me to tell you, 'Get ready to lose,' because he always gets what he wants." Lindsay looked at Danny.

The heat building between them was palpable. Danny put his hands down on his desk and leaned over it towards her, licking his lips. 'Damn,' Lindsay caught her breath whenever he did that, which was often. She was afraid her knees would buckle if their eyes kept locked to each other like they were now. "That so, Montana?" She barely nodded, keeping the teasing sparkle in her eyes. "Well then he's in for one hell of a fight," Danny smiled. _No one beats me at my two loves: baseball and Montana.

* * *

_

**Ok**, next chapter will feature America's pastime, fun, summertime, and the return of the slightly persistent/jealous Danny that i sort of miss. i can't wait…can you?

**as always, i heart your reviews.

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	9. Scorch

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A/N: yay! Here's a gift for y'all for reaching 100 reviews on this story…I love you guys, I really do! You keep me going. **

**oh ----** this is a totally fluff chapter, thanks to my two muses this week: #35 and a wicked sunburn that i got at a Phillies game last weekend. let me tell y'all: **CH** definitely made the sunburn worth it. left-handed pitchers are hott – with two t's! --- um, and Carmine Giovinazzo, he's definitely a scorcher too. (sorry if y'all don't know who I'm referring to)

**Love, El. **

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**Chapter 9: Scorch

* * *

**

It was bright and sunny and about 93 degrees outside in the shade, and it was only 10AM. Danny rolled over, tangled and sweaty in his sheets, tossing his arm over his head to swat at his alarm clock. _Why did God have to give somebody the brains to invent alarms that blare in your ear at such early hours on a Saturday?_ He rolled himself over onto his back, staring sleepily at his unfocused ceiling. _He's not going to win today. Over my dead body._

_

* * *

_

Just over three hours later, Danny was standing next to the First Base at a baseball diamond in Central Park, talking to Hawkes and Pino as they waited for all the players and coaches and everyone to show up. "This year, Mac," they heard Joey Delvillaggio call out, "we're gonna beat your lab rats, nice and good. This is the year we kick your dorky asses!" Mac was standing about 10 feet away, towards the CSI dugout, talking to Stella and Sid. He turned to Joey and laughed, "Why so confident **this** year, Joey?"

"We got ourselves a secret weapon this year. He's strong and fast, with a right arm to kill for. He used to ride rodeo bulls," Joey said. _He was the bull._

Hawkes nudged Danny and said, "You think he's talking about Lindsay's boyfriend?" Despite his desire to bristle at the use of that term, Danny kept his nonchalance intact. He was about to answer when Joey yelled to Mac that their secret weapon was on his way into the parking lot behind the diamond now. Danny turned and saw a huge deep blue pickup truck pulling into a space in the lot. He turned to Hawkes, "Yeah, that is definitely who he's talking about."

The pickup rumbled to a stop, and Danny rumbled right along with it. "Of course he has to drive a huge environment destroying vehicle because he's a manly man," he groused. "The exhaust from that thing probably killed a family of ducks on its way in here."

Hawkes rolled his eyes; he wasn't even going to dignify Danny's bitching with a response. Pino, however, shook his head and asked, "Don't you drive a big ass SUV around for work everyday, Messer?" Danny just shrugged, pretending like that was a totally different issue, and watched as Lindsay slid her petite frame off the pickup's passenger seat. She had to step onto a running board before she could make it to the ground, and Danny took a victory in the fact that Morrow hadn't opened her door for her.

"There's our guy, Mac. He's just what we've needed to beat you guys, so I hope you don't mind losing today." Mac just shrugged off the talk with a "We'll see, Joey," and made his way towards the CSI dugout to grab the field positions clipboard he had brought. With Lindsay's arrival they were only waiting for Flack to get there. Stella wondered that he could even play after the rough and tumble May he'd had, but Don said the doctors said he'd be fine to play.

Danny was attempting to not be transfixed by Lindsay as she approached the dugouts with Morrow, but he was failing miserably. His pulse had quickened the moment he saw her, and then had damn near overloaded when he saw what she was wearing. Lindsay knew it'd be hot and wanted to be comfortable, so she'd worn a pair of her old college shorts, the tight little short ones with the team logo on the back, and had cut her uniform Crime Lab fitted tee to make it a sleeveless v-neck. Her shorts accentuated her legs, and her shirt gave the promise of a hint of midriff if she stretched her arms too high over her head, and Danny was afraid he'd never be able to concentrate on anything again, as long as that image remained in his brain. Morrow bent over and gave her a kiss on the cheek, before she turned and made her way over to where Stella and Sid were now joined by Adam. Danny watched her smile and greet everyone – she was obviously excited for the start of the game – and Danny didn't realize anyone had been talking to him until Flack hit him upside the head.

"Man, I've been telling you the game's gonna start in about 5 minutes for the past four, and you've been in your own little world," Flack chuckled. He knew exactly why Danny had spaced; it had everything to do with a petite brunette whose soft curls were pulled back in a ponytail and who was bent over applying sunscreen to her legs, providing a good view of her ass to the guys standing by first base. "C'mon, Messer, we need you focused if we're gonna beat them this year," Flack chided as he headed for the CSI dugout to talk to Mac. Slowly Danny, Hawkes, and Pino made their way over there as well. _Game time, it's on!_

_

* * *

_

The start of the game was rather unceremonious. The umps were borrowed from a local league in order to make it fair and the fire station was first up at bat. The CSI team trotted out to their spots on the field after getting a brief pep talk from Mac – their obvious choice for coach and their de facto pick for catcher – which consisted of, "Do good and hopefully none of us will get called out to a scene." _That's Mac: short and to the point,_ Danny chuckled to himself as he shuffled the dirt around his feet. He could hear Sid behind him out in Center Field giving encouragement to that Stella, who was back in Right Field. Mac and the umpire had just positioned themselves behind homeplate, when the FD team sent out their first batter. It was a pretty tough looking Hispanic woman named Luz, who Danny was sure, could take on any one of the guys present.

"Oh right, sacrifice the woman first," Stella griped so that only Flack at First Base and Danny at Second could hear. Flack and Danny exchanged amused looks, as Hawkes wound up for the first pitch. Lindsay stifled a laugh as Marty murmured something like, "Who decided it'd be a good idea to let him pitch?" from around the Third Base area. The first pitch was a strike, and the batter's teammates all moaned in universal disappointment.

As Sheldon wound up for the next toss, Danny heard Lindsay on his right trying to ease Adam's concerns. "I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be a team asset today," he called.

"Adam, it'll be fine. Just do what you do at the lab, pay attention and catch something." _That's my girl_. A thought struck Danny just then as to whether Lindsay had been the peppy cheerleader or a player when she was younger. One second after he thought that, a baseball was flying towards his right ear, and Danny had to duck his head or risk not making it out of there with both ears intact. Hammerback ran up from Center Field to try and catch it, just as Stella rushed over to the same place, and the two of them ended up on the matted grass as the ball landed about fifteen feet behind them.

"Adam, go get the ball!" Pino was yelling from Third, as Lindsay moved back to cover Left Field and Danny made a move to get on Second, since by now, Luz was making her way towards his base. Adam picked up the ball and chucked it to Lindsay who, in turn, tossed it to Danny. Once Danny had the ball, Luz stayed on second and the at-deck batter moved up to swing.

* * *

The top of the first inning finished with a strikeout of the second batter, one single and a walk, an out at homeplate when Luz tried to steal the base, and another strikeout. Finally it was the CSI team's turn at bat. The first in their lineup was Marty.

"C'mon Pino, I've seen you crack a ribcage open with more force than you're swinging that bat!" Danny yelled to him. So far he was 2 strikes and a ball. _I wanna wipe that stupid grin off loverboy's face out there_. It just so happened, that Colt was the pitcher for the NYFD team. He wound up and threw a curve ball, which Marty only got a little piece of. Danny and Flack groaned at the same time.

"You know, at the velocity the ball was traveling, it could kill a person if it struck them in the sternum thereby creating a non-syncopated beat within the heart muscle proper, causing arrhythmatic problems and therefore a forced heart attack and without proper treatment, and actually in certain circumstances even despite prompt and attentive medical care, the patient may die," Hawkes remarked.

Hammerback grunted agreement next to him. "Indeed. When I was younger, there was a DB that came into the morgue with signs of a heart attack. It turned out that the gentleman did indeed suffer heart arrhythmia, but had actually died when an inexperienced passerby at the scene where the man had been having chest pain and subsequently lapsed into unconsciousness tried to perform chest compressions for CPR. He pounded so hard on the man's chest, he caused an irregular rhythm to occur which, incidentally, killed him." This launched the two pathologists into various stories about different dead bodies that had come into the morgue over the years and their various causes of death. Meanwhile, Marty had been struck out and Stella was on First Base, while Adam was one strike away from being out. Mac walked from one end of the dugout to the other, and while passing Hawkes and Hammerback, said: "Guys, this really is interesting, but Sid you're supposed to be on deck."

Danny was trying to control his already ramped competitive side, but couldn't help but notice that in between plays, Colt kept smiling and waving at Montana in the dugout. For her part, Lindsay remained calm and composed, neither acknowledging that she saw the gestures nor being uncivil to the man she supposed she was dating. She **was**, however, very aware of Danny's ass being directly in her line of sight. 'And he just has to be wearing athletic shorts that accentuate the fact that he has a nice ass,' she thought, wryly. Colt had just waved at her again, when Joey Devillaggio yelled, "Hey! Don Juan! Pitch to the old doc already!" which, of course, upset Hammerback since he didn't consider himself old in the least. Sid responded to the comment by hitting a double off the next pitch, sending Stella to Third.

"Is that secret weapon here yet, Joey?" Mac yelled, and Lindsay and Flack exchanged amused grins at seeing the usually reserved lab head getting into the competition as well. Joey merely shot him a glare and yelled at Colt again, causing Flack to comment, "Guess it sucks to go up against your man, huh, Lindsay?"

Danny was leaning against the fence in front of the dugout, but his ears were as good sitting between Montana and Flack. She smiled and laughed, "Oh, I'm not that upset about it. He thinks he's going to win, because he says there's a lot riding on this game. Apparently," she leaned towards the taller detective on her left conspiratorially, "a lot more than he's willing to share with me. But," she said, leaning back and crossing her legs, "he gets all competitive and I'm pretty competitive, so it's fun letting him think I want him to win then coming here and kicking his ass at the game." This time Flack laughed with her, thoroughly amused that she was full on ready to beat her own boyfriend at some friendly competition, and knowing full well that Messer was close to wetting himself because he was so excited at spending a day with Monroe. Flack watched Danny closely, knowing where his thoughts were, before getting up and grabbing a bat to practice on deck.

_This isn't good, Messer. Now you want her even more because she's not afraid to get down and dirty to win a game. Even if she is playing against the guy she's dating. She's like a little tease wrapped up in the perfect girl-next-door outfit._ "Damn, that's hot," Danny muttered.

"What's hot?" Stella asked him. She had just scored the first run of the game, when Mac got a single. Danny hadn't realized she was next to him while he was thinking about Montana, who at that moment was about 10 feet in front of them bent over in her little shorts tapping dirt from her shoes with the end of her bat. Stella knew just where his eyes were glued and chuckled to herself when he answered her question with, "Oh, um, I meant it's hot out here. The sun, ya know."

"Yup, Danny, sure the sun is hot," Stella said before leaning in his ear as she passed, saying, "and everyone knows that isn't what you're eyes are fixed on." Danny suppressed a groan, and grabbed his mitt; Flack's out was number three. Danny fought the urge to turn and punch the big firefighter, when Colt slapped Lindsay's butt as she ran past him towards her shortstop position. She was bright red and it wasn't from sunburn, as she caught Danny giving her a look. _God this is gonna be a long afternoon!_

_

* * *

_

The next 5 innings passed without any real improvement in the game. The score was still 1-0 in favor of the Crime Lab, and besides a couple of expected comments and barbs traded back and forth, nothing much had transpired. Colt had so far lived up to Joey Devillaggio's praise and had struck out everyone, including Lindsay, at least once. It was now the bottom of the sixth inning and Danny made his way out to homeplate to bat.

"Don't get comfortable, Lab Rat," Colt joked, "cause you're going to be heading back to that dugout soon enough." Danny just smiled sarcastically and tapped the corner of the plate with his bat. He had been a star baseball player, and this was his game. _The stakes are too high to lose today_.

"Show me what you got, Paul Bunyan!" Colt threw a fastball which turned too close to Danny and so was ruled a ball by the ump. _So you wanna play rough, huh?_ "Trying to hit me, tough guy?"

"I wouldn't do that with ladies present," Colt replied. He turned his body, wound up, and sent a pitch over the plate which Danny whiffed.

"Shouldn't you guys be upset that he thinks he works with all girls," Flack asked the first baseman next to him. Charlie just shrugged, and hit Flack's arm with his mitt.

"Yeah well, the way I hear it, Morrow has some sort of big thing riding on this game. I think he's especially out to knock Messer down a couple pegs." Flack interestedly listened, as his eyes found Lindsay in the dugout, and was a little surprised to find her watching Danny and not Colt. "Yeah, and that won't be too hard with the way Messer's been playing today," Charlie was saying.

"Pitching bad is no way to get the ladies, Smoky!" Danny readied himself for the pitch.

"I'm obviously doing better than you when it comes to getting the girl, Messer," Colt yelled before pitching one over the plate at Danny, who said nothing, but had a blaze burning in his blue eyes. _Don't be so smug, Smoky_. Somewhere from the dugout he thought he heard Pino call out, "Shut up and pitch!" Danny merely replied to Colt's low blow with a homerun over the Left Field fence, returning both himself and Flack to homeplate.

Meanwhile in the dugout, Lindsay and Stella had been talking as Danny made his way up to bat. When they heard the comments start to fly, Stella looked at Lindsay with a worried expression. "Doesn't it bother you that Danny is abusing that sweet guy who you're dating?" Lindsay shrugged.

"Eh. Not so much. Colt's a big boy, he can handle a little innocent ribbing," she laughed.

Stella looked incredulous, and caught Mac's expression out of the corner of her eye. He looked highly amused that Lindsay was sticking up for Danny, and both he and Stella silently acknowledged that that must mean that Lindsay cares more for Danny than she was letting on. They could both already tell that Danny was nearing his sparking point with the whole situation; anyone who came within ten feet of them when they were together got burnt from the heat radiating off the pair. "Lindsay, I think this ribbing is a bit more than innocent. The antagonism between those two…" Stella started.

"Chemistry is not an invisible science, Stella," Mac interrupted her, and she got his unspoken message. Lindsay merely looked confused. Mac was telling Stella to let it go – one way or the other, this thing between Danny and Lindsay was going to combust sooner or later. At this point, most of the Crime Lab had money on sooner. While all this was happening, Danny and Flack were making their way into the dugout to get their mitts; it was the CSI turn to take the field. Lindsay gave both men a high five on their runs, but it escaped no one's notice that her hand lingered a little longer on Danny's and a mini nuclear explosion seemed to go off between the two of them every time their eyes met or skin touched. It really didn't help things that it was ridiculously hot out, and everyone was sweating up a storm.

As Danny was running out to his Second Base spot, Colt intentionally brushed past him on his way to his dugout. "You're going to lose, Messer, she's mine," Colt said, low enough for just Danny to hear. Before Danny could make a reply, Colt jogged off to his bench. _Don't be so sure, asshole_.

* * *

The top of the seventh was going pretty much as the other innings before it, except that the tension between Danny and Colt were rising with every swing, and everyone knew it. This made for some entertainment on both sides of the game. When Colt came to bat, everyone waited to see how it would go.

"Let's go, Doc, pitch a slow one since all he knows how to swing is a fire hose!" Danny yelled from the left of Hawkes. Sheldon laughed and threw a fast strike over the right corner of the plate.

"Don't piss the man off, Messer, before he bats a homerun!" Flack yelled at Danny as Colt readied himself for another pitch. The next couple throw were balls. Before Hawkes pitched any more, Mac came out the mound and motioned Lindsay and Flack in with them. After a short little conference, Flack and Lindsay moved back to their positions and Mac made his way back to squat as the catcher. Giving Hawkes a signal, Mac grinned in his face mask. Hopefully this worked…

In the meantime, Lindsay had tied her shirt tails around her midriff, just covering her belly button. Stella laughed to herself, knowing what was coming next. Hawkes pitched another strike, and Colt's teammates were yelling for him to hit the ball out of the park the next time. _C'mon, Romeo, you only got one more shot to do something_.

Colt was bent over the plate, knocking dirt from his shoes, and when he looked up he thought he might have a heart attack. There, in her shortstop position, Lindsay was stretching her arms over her head in such a way that her entire midriff was visible, 'including that cute little belly button,' thought Colt. Mac laughed behind him, 'Good job, Lindsay, we got him.' Stella and the firefighters' female players were all chuckling to themselves, knowing exactly what was going on, as just about every male player at the game, other than Mac, Adam (who was in his own little world at the moment, or he would have been looking too), Hawkes, and one umpire were staring at Lindsay as if she were doing a striptease instead of simply stretching.

A bead of sweat trickled down Danny's temple, and his eyes were fixed on Montana. _She gives a whole new meaning to 'Seventh Inning Stretch,'_ he groaned. Trying to pry his eyes off her and pay attention to Hawkes, who was winding up for the pitch, he noticed that she seemed completely unaware of the effect she was having. Danny licked his lips; _Lordy, what that woman does to me_. Danny did notice too, with some additional pleasure, that Colt was busy staring at Montana too, and didn't see the ball Hawkes had pitched until it was almost on top of the plate. That resulted in Colt hitting a pop fly ball, which, surprisingly, Sid caught, making Colt sulk back to the dugout amidst hoots and jeers that he had been distracted by his girlfriend.

Unfortunately for the Crime Lab, when Charlie, the first baseman Flack had talked to earlier, got up to bat, he hit a triple, sending in two runners to make the score at the beginning of the bottom of the seventh, 3-2. The CSI team scored no runs in the bottom of the seventh and although neither team scored in the eighth, the NYFD managed to get in another RBI in the top of the ninth, tying the score up. It all came down to the bottom of the ninth.

* * *

The first two batters – Hammerback and Hawkes – struck out, making it crucial that Danny not do the same as he made his way to the plate. Danny got two strikes but hit a solid center off the third pitch, which made a straight line for Colt's body. Morrow leaned his body back in an attempt to not get hit with the ball and catch it at the same time, but the ball managed to bounce off his glove and pop back towards the space of ground between the Right and Center Fielders. Neither one of them managed to get it in time before the ball rolled twenty feet behind them into Center Field. At this point Danny was rounding Second, making for Third, as Colt and Joey Devillaggio were simultaneously yelling for someone to get the ball. Danny was stopped at Third, and stayed there with a devilishly handsome smirk on his face.

_Nobody likes a sore loser, Morrow_. Colt was grumbling and grousing on the pitcher's mound, as Mac came up to bat. Colt walked him unintentionally because he was still too focused on Danny's triple and his own stupid mistake with the ball to pitch anything other than balls. When he saw Lindsay making her to the plate, Colt figured he'd strike her out easy enough, even if he was still pissed about Messer. _Come on, Montana; show the big ox what a country girl's got!_

Danny stood ready to run, a little off Third in the direction of homeplate, when Colt called, "Sorry, honey, about this, but you know I gotta strike you out."

Lindsay just grinned and caught Danny's eyes for a split second, before she said, "Oh that's all right, Colt, I know you've gotta do what you've gotta do." Danny could tell her tone was a little too saccharine to be anything but sarcastic, but Colt seemed to buy her whole I'm-just-a-country-girl-who-only-plays-baseball-to-look-at-the-cute-guys act. Colt pitched; Lindsay swung and missed. Strike one.

Danny knew her well enough to know that she missed the ball on purpose. _She's so sexy when she's being a little tease like that._ Colt wound up, tossed another – Strike Two.

"Sorry about this, Miss Lindsay, you know it's not personal," Colt smiled. Lindsay simply grinned; Stella called some encouragement and Flack yelled something along the lines of, "Kick his ass, Monroe!" Danny rolled his eyes; _what a cheesy grin, Fireboy_; _just throw the ball already_. Colt pitched and not a sound was heard.

Until the crack of Lindsay's wooden bat on the hard leather of the ball. Everyone stood watching the ball climb into the air, covering their eyes from the blinding afternoon sun in the clear blue skies, and saw it sail smoothly over the fence between Left and Center Fields. At about the same moment, all hell broke loose.

The NYFD dugout was a cacophony of screams and moans, knowing they had just lost the game 6-3 because of Lindsay's homer, and the Crime Lab bench went crazy with joy at winning. Stella hugged everyone in turn, starting with Adam, as Danny ran towards homeplate where Lindsay had dropped her bat to watch her hit go over the fence. She knew she'd won the game for them and she turned and saw Danny coming towards her.

As Danny made it to homeplate, Lindsay turned in happiness and jumped into his arms, so excited that they'd won. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he held her around the waist, her arms pumping the air in victory. The others made their way out to homeplate to join in the impromptu celebration. Danny knew he had every right to turn and make some smug comment to the firefighter on the pitcher's mound since they'd won, and it was his girlfriend that had scored a homerun and 2 RBI's off him to do it. Instead, Danny stood relishing the feel of Montana in his arms, as she squeezed his waist just above his hips with her thighs to keep from falling and threw her arms around his neck. She just kept screaming, "We won! Danny, we won!" in his ear. Colt was left dejected and being ribbed by his teammates about being beat by his girlfriend on the pitcher's mound, gaping at the two of them as they were surrounded by their teammates. Lindsay loved the feel of Danny's strong arms around her waist, mixed with her ecstatic feelings at winning the game for the team, and didn't want to get down, but she eventually did – not, however, before being there just long enough to make Flack, Stella, and Hawkes exchange knowing looks.

* * *

The team continued celebrating for a while, until everyone disbanded to gather up the equipment, although everyone was in agreement that they should all go out somewhere to celebrate the win further.

Colt pulled Lindsay aside to humbly congratulate her on her homerun and ask her if she'd like to console his loss by going out with him that night. Lindsay felt bad for him, but told him that she really wanted to celebrate the win with her colleagues. "But maybe you can call me later, or you can come over when I get back. I don't think I'll be out too long," she said, glancing at her watch – it was just after 5PM. She leaned up and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, before dashing back over to help Stella gather up the bats.

Danny couldn't stop the grin that formed on his face. "I told you, you can't beat me at my two loves: baseball and Montana," he murmured to himself.

While the rest of his team made their way to their cars – Lindsay was going to ride with Stella since she had come with Colt, Mac made his way over to Joey Devillaggio in the NYFD dugout. "You know, Joey, I think we brought a secret weapon of our own," Mac taunted. When Joey gave him a questioning look, Mac simply replied, "Chemistry."

* * *

**Haha alright!** Well, hopefully y'all got some sunburn too… anyway, next chapter will probably be a little cluff, but we'll see.

**p.s.** big ups to my little brother Jay who answered, like, 402 questions about America's Pastime for me…

**your reviews deserve big hearts, y'all.

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	10. Melt

**A/N:** here's a big,new chapter for y'all because I found a great new author (Kathy Bacus is great – check her out!) and character to love, another author made my day, oh and I saw a CSI:NY book at Wal-Mart the other day, which I thought was funny. And yes, Danny looked way hot on the cover – since I know y'all were wondering that.

**Since** someone made my day today, maybe this chapter will make yours. If it does, let me know – cause that would doubly make my day!

**With Mucho Love, El **

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Chapter 10: Melt

* * *

It was 10:30AM and Danny had already been at the lab for 4 hours, trying to make headway in tracking down Cristine Connors' younger brother. Currently, he was going through the parentage files of every child who was enrolled in the Columbia University study that Dr. Terrill was heading up. There were over 40 participants ranging in ages from toddlers to teens, and Danny had gotten a headache just thinking about the work he had cut out for him. He had quickly crossed off all the females from his list of files to get, and had ended up with 27 names that he had to research and gather information on.

Narrowing his list even further by eliminating any male who wasn't 13, give or take a 2 year window, he chopped his list down to an even 10 people. There were seven 13 year olds who were participating in the study, two males who were 12, and one who was 14. Danny now had to pull the family histories on each of the 10 pubescent males, and go through them with a fine tooth comb, trying to figure out whether one of them just happened to be adopted and was born with the name Baby Boy Connors. He rubbed the back of his head, confused and tired – even though it was still morning – and could think of a few things he'd much rather be doing right then. Even_ though I'd rather be wherever Montana is right now, I wanna get this done, so we can find this kid and talk to him_. Danny hunkered down and got back to work.

* * *

Lindsay stepped out of the elevator and into Adam. "Oh um, hi Adam, I didn't see you there." Lindsay had been going back over the adoption file for Baby Boy Connors. She was trying to find out if his adoption would have been made a matter of public record for some reason. That would make her and Danny's job of finding Cristine's little brother much easier, but the probability that the record was public was unlikely. "Did you need me, Adam?"

Adam shrugged as he rubbed his hands together, looking eager. "Um, yeah, Lindsay. I think I found something that'll interest you and Danny." Lindsay looked at him, confused; she hadn't asked Adam to run anything for her and as far as she knew, Danny hadn't either. Lindsay looked at Adam, who seemed fair to bursting with something he had to tell her. "Wow, Adam, you got sunburnt Saturday," was all she could think to say.

"Yeah, I know," Adam said as he started leading her towards one of the lab workrooms. "That's because I was too sparse with the sunscreen, so I got all burnt. I'm bright red like a lobster, and it's been this way with me since I was a little kid." Adam had stopped next to the Mass Spec, and was motioning with his hands as he explained his turbulent history with not enough sunscreen and too much sunburn. "My mom used to always say I got burnt because of my delicate skin, which, of course, bugged me when I was a kid, cause who wants their friends to hear that they have delicate skin. She used to say that I was so fair-skinned I made Casper look tan, and whenever we'd go to the pool she'd lather me up with sunscreen – and that super thick, super white sunscreen too, the one that's, like, SPF 400, y'know. And she'd always make me come out of the water every half an hour or so, cause she said that—"

"Adam," Lindsay said, snapping her fingers in front of his nose. "You brought me here to show me something, I assume, and I'm sure it wasn't to show me what happens to your fair skin when you don't wear enough sunscreen." She smiled, nicely if somewhat impatiently.

"Um, yeah, I did," Adam recollected himself. "I know you guys didn't ask me to do this, but I started thinking that maybe running pieces of your burn victim's damaged flesh and tissue through the Mass Spec would help. Remember how Marty said that there was a funny smell emitted when they cut into her body to start the autopsy, which I guess could be attributed to the fact that her body was practically incinerated from the inside out, since I'm sure that would make a body smell something awful, not to mention the fact that dead bodies decompose and emit various gases and odors and…" Lindsay chose that moment to clear her throat, hoping to get him back on track. Adam scratched his head sheepishly, "Yeah sorry, anyway. So I ran her samples through the Mass Spec to see if I could determine what possibly caused that funky smell that Marty smelled. I thought if the results were interesting, they might be able to lead you in a direction to determine what exactly caused the fire that burned your victim."

"Well that was nice of you, Adam. So what did you find?" Lindsay moved closer to him to get a better look at the results screen he had pulled up.

"I found out that the strange smell being emitted has the same mass spectrometry as bananas."

Lindsay did a double take. "Bananas?"

"Yup, it was a faint detection, since it seems that whatever was causing the smell has since dissipated, but it came up as a match to those potassium filled fruits." Seeing the confusion clearly written on Lindsay's face, Adam said, "I even ran multiple samples to be sure. Your victim had some kind of contact with bananas just prior to her death."

Lindsay took the results he printed from his hands, and nodded dumbly. 'So Cristine Connors caught on fire after coming in contact with bananas?' She rubbed her temples and headed for the hallway. "Um, thanks, Adam. I really do appreciate you running those samples without us asking you. I owe you one," she said as she backed out of the lab doors.

* * *

Next door to where Lindsay was finding out about the mass spectrometry of Cristine Connors' stomach tissue, Danny was rubbing his eyes and sifting through 10 different family histories, hoping to hit pay dirt. Pushing his glasses up onto his head and rubbing his eyes, Danny groaned. _I really hope I don't go blind from staring at these all morning_. He had spent all morning searching through the files, reading about parents and problems with conceiving and problems with these kids, and all the testing they had each been through prior to enrolling in this study. Although he'd never admit it, it stung Danny's heart reading all the different stories about these kids and how their parents noticed problems developing when the kids were babies; they wouldn't bond with their parents, they seemed distant, cold, unfeeling. _That just sucks_, Danny thought. _Hopefully, good things can come out of this study that'll help kids like this in the future_. Danny rubbed his eyes again; he'd narrowed the possibilities for being Cristine's younger brother to two males, both 13, who had incomplete information in their family histories. Both of them seemed like they could have been adopted at 18 months, but so far Danny hadn't found anything that could constitute concrete evidence of such an event in either of their files. _Well, I've narrowed it down this far. Maybe Montana will have a different insight on these two boys_. At the thought of the enchanting brunette, Danny's insides got all twisted and heated; there was a warm glow spreading from his lower abs through his feet, up into his arms and swirling around in his chest. He smiled remembering her winning homerun from the game, and how she'd jumped into his arms instead of running her bases. Danny's body temperature ratcheted up another couple of notches as he realized how good it had felt holding her like that, even if it was only in celebration and her somewhat boyfriend was standing all of 30 feet away from them. _Where is my gorgeous partner, anyway?_

* * *

After Lindsay left Adam with the Mass Spec, she headed for her office to go over his results again and to try and figure what bananas had to do with fire. She was in her own world, reading the results as she walked, and didn't hear her own name being called, until Flack nearly tackled her trying to get her attention. "Hey," he said, somewhat breathlessly since he'd run from one end of the hall to other after her, "I've been shouting your name for the past five minutes." Lindsay gave him a somewhat dazed look. "Jeez," he groaned, "between you and Danny it's a wonder I don't just start talking to the walls; they'd probably be more responsive."

"I'm sorry, Flack, I was just reading some interesting results Adam got off my vic. What's up?" she said, looking up and giving him her full attention.

"Where're you headed?" he asked instead. She smiled, knowing that was his way of shrugging off her earlier hearing impairment, and started walking toward her office with Flack falling in step beside her. "Anyway," he said, "I wanted to tell you that the credit check of your victim turned up some suspicious items."

"Oh yeah?" Lindsay asked, intrigued. "What'd she do, blow a thousand dollars on shoes?"

"Uh, no, cause that wouldn't have raised any red flags," Flack answered. Lindsay went to swat him, but he sidestepped her hand. "All I'm saying is that women spend a lot of money on shoes."

"And guys are infamous for making ridiculous 3AM drunk calls, but that's beside the point," Lindsay joked. "What'd you find on her credit report?"

"According to last month's bill statement, she spent 12 grand on medical equipment and supplies; none of which, if I recall correctly, were located in her apartment after her death."

"No we didn't find anything that would total that amount in her possession. Hmm," Lindsay shook her head, "Cristine Connors has more twists and turns about her than a rodeo bull."

"Yeah, and in defense of men everywhere, it's not just us guys who do drunk calls, ya know," Flack was saying as they stopped in Lindsay's office doorway. "Wow, you sure have that guy of yours whipped…I mean, trained well," Flack commented. On Lindsay's desk there was another display of flowers. "What is this, like, the third time he's sent you flowers?"

Lindsay cocked her head to the side. Something was different about this bunch of flowers; they didn't look like the other bouquets that Colt had sent her. She slowly made her way towards her desk, where the flowers were. Flack inched into the office with her, looking over her shoulder at the arrangement.

"Man, that's the ugliest bouquet of flowers I've ever seen anyone send a girl." Lindsay elbowed him just below his ribcage, and Flack choked a bit. "Um hey, watch where you're landing that elbow, I'm still recovering," Flack bellyached.

"Oh please, Flack, you're fine. You were playing baseball Saturday, and besides, I didn't elbow you all that hard." Lindsay reached out to finger the flowers, highly confused and attempted to find a card attached to them. There wasn't any card, no way of knowing who had sent the flowers, if you could call them that. Lindsay ran her fingers over the delicate petals; it was a smaller arrangement than the ones Colt had sent before, which further led Lindsay to suspect that it wasn't Colt who had sent them. 'Colt's fond of doing things big and bold – he is from Montana, after all, Big Sky Country. His arrangements took up my whole desk,' she thought to herself. She had a faint idea of who they might be from, but she still wasn't sure why he gave them to her.

The arrangement was situated in a low-rising vase that wasn't really a vase at all, rather it was a rectangular bucket made of wood. It was fashioned to look like the old Western wooden water buckets that the Plains' towns would put under their gutters and spouts to catch the heavy rains that would roll in. It was obviously a new creation, but the bucket/pseudo-vase was aged to make it look like it had seen many rainstorms in its day. The bucket had a thin black metal band that went around it, about two inches from the top, and a gorgeous length of golden ribbon was wrapped around the metal band and wooden bucket, ending in a medium-sized bow situated in the middle of one of the lengthy sides of the rectangle. On the bottom of the arrangement, various lengths of pine boughs were arranged, almost as a blanket for the flowers which where arranged in layers on top. The lower layers consisted of Perennial Prairie Sunflower blossoms intermixed with White Yarrow clusters. The effect was a rich yellow and white cloud upon which sat large blooms of Bitterroot, in both white and bright pink varieties, their petals wide and in full bloom, somewhat resembling water lilies. They covered the entire top of the arrangement, which only rose about a foot and a half off the surface of Lindsay's desk, including the wooden bucket vase. Every so often a Hairy Golden Aster or Slender White Prairie Clover or Fuzzytongue Penstemon shot up between the large Bitterroot blossoms in delicate golds, whites, and lavenders.

The mix of colors, which were striking against the bright evergreen of the pine boughs, and the smells coming off the arrangement struck Lindsay's heart with all the force of a steam engine at full speed. Despite her brain's warning to not become the weepy woman of the lab, Lindsay's eyes teared up and her breath caught, since her heart had stopped and was lodged somewhere around her trachea. Meanwhile, Flack was still looking at the arrangement as if a badger was sitting on Lindsay's desk and not flowers. "I still say he missed the memo on what to send when sending someone flowers. Who sends a girl they like a bucket?"

"It's not a bucket," Lindsay sighed, "it's beautiful. He's amazing."

"I don't understand why firefighters always have this effect on women," Flack groaned, "cops are just as amazing."

"Oh not him, you goof, **him**," Lindsay said, breathlessly. Flack scratched his head, completely confused; if it wasn't him the firefighter, what him was it? As Flack's mental lightbulb came flickering on, Lindsay dabbed at her eyes; she didn't want to become a crying mess, but she couldn't help it. This was too sweet a gesture not to get all choked up over it. Flack didn't know what to do with the sniffling woman in front of him, so he just put his hand on her left shoulder and patted it awkwardly; 'where is Stella when I need her?' he thought.

"You know, Flack, I'm pretty sure Mac'll be pissed when he finds out you make his CSI's cry," Hawkes said from where he was leaning in the office doorway. Flack bristled at Hawkes's assumption that he made Lindsay cry, when she turned and looked at both men with somewhat bleary eyes. She gave a big smile as she ushered Flack and Hawkes out the door.

"I'm fine, guys. Hawkes – Flack didn't make me cry. And Flack, thanks for the credit info and the other stuff. But I have some work that I need to get done now, so if you guys'll excuse me, I'll just get down to it." With that, she shut her office door and turned back to be alone with her feelings and her gorgeous flowers.

* * *

_God, this afternoon is crawling by_, Danny thought, as he stood and stretched his cramped muscles. He had worked right through lunch, trying to backtrack families and parents and sperm and eggs. Of the two males he'd narrowed his search onto, one seemed to negate himself after all the researching and calls Danny had made. The boy was conceived by artificial insemination using his parents' own reproductive media, and as far as Danny could discover, had never been adopted out of his current family. His parents now were his biological parents. The second boy however, _now that's where this deal gets tricky_, Danny thought. _This one_, he thought as he picked up the casefile, _he was conceived through artificial insemination using his parents' own reproductive media but his early childhood years are still shrouded in mystery_. It was clear that his parents had moved around often, which Danny figured could be passed off on attempts at getting their child the help he needed, but Danny wasn't so sure that's what it was. It seemed like his parents had moved around because they were running from something, or hoping to avoid contact with someone. _Hopefully that contact was a birth parent_, Danny reflected.

Danny took a glance at his watch as he made his way to the breakroom, hoping to scrounge up something to eat and get some fresh coffee. _1:57PM and it feels like forever since I started this morning._ He had yet to see Montana today, figuring she must be as hard at work as him. He was really interested in what she'd have to say about the kid who he thought could be Cristine Connors' younger biological brother. _As a matter of fact_, he thought, _I haven't seen anyone else today, not even Hawkes or Adam. Wonder what's up with that?_

Just as that thought crossed Danny's mind, Flack sucker punched him in the arm from behind. "What the hell was that for, Flack?" Danny growled, rubbing his arm.

"Don't be such a wuss, Messer. That was for making me look like a bully this morning."

"When did I do this?" Danny said as confusion was evident on his face. They went into the breakroom, Danny grabbing some coffee as Flack rifled through the refrigerator looking for an unopened bottle of water. "Well Flack?" Danny prompted from where he was leaning against the counter.

"You made her cry, that's what. With your little bucket o' flowers. She got all teary-eyed and sniffley, and I just happened to be with her when she saw them the first time because I had some info for her about your victim. I had no clue what to do when she got like that, so I sort of tried to comfort her, and when I did, Hawkes just happened to stop by your office and assumed I had made her cry." Danny was just staring at him, as if he had no idea what Flack was going on about. This only served to annoy Flack more. "Don't look at me like that, Messer, I know it was you even though you didn't leave a card or any kind of message on them."

"I think it's a good thing they're calling for thunderstorms this afternoon," Danny said.

Flack gave him an incredulous look. "First you pretend that you know nothing about the flowers you sent Lindsay this morning, and then you start talking to me about the weather. What is wrong with you?"

"It's a good thing they're calling for rain," Danny started again, "because I think this heat wave has fried your brain, buddy." Flack stood sat down on a backwards facing chair opposite Danny and groaned at his lame joke.

"Give it up, Messer. I know it was you," Flack said, looking him square in the eye. "And you ought to own up to it, cause I've been taking crap all day from people for making poor Detective Monroe cry. If I hear that one more time, you're a dead man, Danny."

Danny shrugged in response and picked up an orange as Stella and Mac walked into the room. Flack was still giving Danny spiteful looks, as Stella grabbed a bottle of water and walked over to lean against the counter next to Danny. Mac shuffled through the newspaper on the table, sipping his fresh coffee, and said, "Detective Flack, what is this I hear about you making my people cry?" Stella could tell there was a hint of a smile on his face.

"Ugh! That's it, Messer, you and me, man, because I'm kicking your ass!" Flack grumbled, standing abruptly. Danny just smiled, Mac tried to keep in his grin but was starting to fail, and Stella just moved over and placed a hand on Flack's arm.

"Now, now, easy there, Don. I think it's so sweet of you to send the game winner flowers after her big homerun on Saturday," Stella soothed. Mac definitely failed then, he was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. He knew Flack hadn't sent Lindsay the flowers. Flack puffed his chest out, Stella held in a laugh, and Danny's face suddenly took on a decidedly sour look. "When did you think of such a charming gesture, Flack?"

"Oh well, um, since everyone I guess is giving me the credit of the gift, I thought it up Saturday night, when we all went out together." Danny stared at his friend as Flack told a bald-faced lie.

"Wait a minute," Danny started, pushing off the counter to face Flack, "I thought you were upset that Montana cried on you. You were the one who made her cry, remember, you big bully."

"Yeah, I made her cry, because I sent her the flowers, you jerk. I wasn't pissed that she cried on me, I just wasn't expecting such overwhelming emotion, that's all. I should have though, since I touch all the ladies' hearts," Flack said, looking very smug and proud of himself. Danny looked like he wanted to wring his neck.

Stella bit back a groan at Flack's pride in his own romancing abilities, and turned when Mac said, "Yeah well, all the he-man stuff aside, don't you gentlemen have things you should be working on? Danny, I know you have an unsolved case on your plate, yet."

"Yeah, I've been working on it all day. I was just taking a break for the first time in 8 hours," Danny said. "I think I may have found Cristine Connors' younger brother. Montana and I are pretty sure he's a part of that study that the vic was volunteering with at Columbia. We've got to go talk to the family yet, but I'm pretty sure we'll get some kind of answers once we have."

"Where is Lindsay anyway?" Stella asked, looking between Flack and Danny.

"I'm taking her to talk to Connors' coworkers. Something suspicious popped up on her credit check when we ran it, and we're going to talk to some people to find out if they knew anything about it," Flack said, making his way to the door. "We have to go downtown, so we won't be back until later, so I guess you won't be talking to that kid's family today, Messer."

"Yeah, yeah, I got other things I can take care of, Flack. You just concentrate on not making her cry again, Casanova," Danny shot at his back. Mac turned to Stella, saying something about getting results from Hammerback for the case they were working on and motioning for her to precede him out the door. Stella nodded, grinned at Danny one more time, and headed for the door, when Mac told her he'd meet her there in a minute; Stella nodded again and left the room.

"Sending her the flowers was a smart move, Danny," Mac said, turning to look at Danny, who stood flabbergasted behind her. _Mac figured it out?_ Danny's face showed that he indeed was the one who had sent Lindsay the flowers, but so far Mac was the only person who Danny had acknowledged sending the flowers to. Mac smiled and left, leaving Danny deep in thought behind him. _Hopefully Montana thinks it was just as sweet as you do, Mac.

* * *

_

Flack and Lindsay stepped into the elevators of the posh surroundings in the downtown law firm where Cristine Connors had worked. Even the air smelled nicer in the building. Lindsay pressed the button for 9, and stood quietly next to her tall companion. She wasn't sure how to say what she wanted to say.

"Um," she started, "I'm sorry I got all weepy on you this morning, Flack. I didn't mean to get so emotional."

Flack shrugged and gave her a grin. "It's nothing, but I still don't understand what made you get that way in the first place."

Lindsay lowered her eyes to the floor of the elevator and a very slight pink crept into her cheeks. She felt a familiar pull in her stomach and twinge in her chest. "It's just…those were…they were the most special flowers anyone could've ever given me."

"Pine trees and wood are special?" Flack raised an eyebrow in her direction. "They sure do things differently out there in Montana." Lindsay laughed in spite of her blush, and smiled up at him.

"Well, I don't know about all pine trees, but that pine was special, and so were the flowers. Each of those plant species in the arrangement, even the pine, are plants that are native to Montana. Most of them are just coming into bloom now back home amongst the rocks and valleys. That arrangement means…" she blushed again, "it means the world to me."

"All this over a winning hit at a ballgame. Man, I didn't know girls looked at a guy's actions that closely," Flack teased. Lindsay smiled, and thought, 'I hope he didn't send them just because I hit the winning homer.' What more she hoped he meant by it, she hadn't yet figured out.

"Well, I just wanted to thank you for what you did this morning, Flack, especially since I found out you've been taking heat all day for making me cry, which you didn't," Lindsay smiled at him.

He shrugged, and said, "My shoulder's open anytime to you, Miss Monroe. Besides I was just looking out for a buddy's girl."

Lindsay looked startled. "I didn't know you were friends with Colt."

As the elevator chime dinged indicating they'd made it to the ninth floor, Flack gave her boyish grin and repeated her words from earlier back to her, "Not him, Lindsay, **him**." Flack left her standing in the elevator, staring after him.

* * *

"What'd you know about her, Ms. Fortis?" Flack was asking the woman whose desk sat opposite Cristine Connors'. She looked uncomfortable and upset as she sat answering questions for Flack and Lindsay.

"Not much. I'm sure you've figured out by now that Cristine pretty much kept to herself," the redhead said. "She was nice and a hard worker, but I didn't know much about her personally."

"Do you know if she had any medical conditions? Did she ever mention needing medical equipment to you?" Lindsay assessed whether she thought the woman was hiding anything from them.

"No, like I said, we didn't really get to know each other on a personal level." Flack shifted his weight and gave her a look. The woman cleared her throat, before continuing, "Well, I mean, I don't see how this could help, but I did overhear her talking to Human Resources about her benefits package a couple months ago. Something about adding an insured to her policy, I think."

"Was she a lavish spender, Ms. Fortis?" Lindsay asked, eyeing up the designer duds the assistant was sporting on everything from her feet to her nails.

Caroline Fortis sat up a little straighter. "No, I can tell you that from experience. She never spent much, and she always seemed extremely uncomfortable when we went out to lunch with the partners." She leaned forward in a conspiratorial whisper, "They like to eat at the best restaurants, y'know." Lindsay nodded, annoyed by the woman, while Flack looked amused at her see-through antics. She was a woman who obviously lived beyond her means. "Cristine was tighter with her money than anyone I knew. She even wore outfits from, like, two seasons ago."

"Not everyone can be as fashionable as yourself," Flack joked, and Lindsay rolled her eyes at him when the woman wasn't looking.

"So you aren't aware of her spending large amounts of money on anything?" Lindsay reiterated.

"No, not that I'm aware of." She looked at her watch, and groaned. "Listen, do you guys need anything else, because I'm supposed to be sitting in on a deposition in five minutes and I have to get the files together."

"No, we're good," Flack said.

"For now," followed Lindsay. The two of them made their way down the spacious hallway in search of either Dave Galen or Max Steinberg, both of whom were partners in the firm and Cristine's immediate supervisors.

* * *

Danny had decided to go back to his office to try and run the final kid's parents through some databases in the hopes that something would help him figure out the kid's childhood. He read over the information another couple of times, and searched various catalogs, both medically related and those related to adoption, and waited for something, anything, to pop up. _So I made Montana cry this morning, did I_, Danny smiled to himself, happy that his gift had made her happy. Then he sat up rubbing the back of his head, _at least, I think she was happy. Those were happy tears, right?

* * *

_

"I'm not sure either Dave or myself are at liberty to discuss such information with you," Max Steinberg was saying to Lindsay and Flack in response to their inquiry whether Cristine Connors had raised any red flags in the HR department prior to her death.

Flack inwardly groaned, and Lindsay could tell he was getting annoyed by the smug lawyer's demeanor of superiority.

"We're aware of the laws, as well, Mr. Steinberg," Lindsay started, "and we aren't asking you anything that needs to remain confidential information. Especially considering the gruesomeness of your employee's death." Lindsay gave Flack a look, and he flipped open his notebook.

"Let's see," he said, reading out of his pad, "A Mr. Kevin Gerardi, who said that he was a personal assistant of yours, recalled Ms. Connors requesting a meeting with you roughly 3 weeks ago." Flack looked up at the big man in front of him, "Maybe you can tell us what that meeting was about."

"I could very easily claim attorney-client privilege," he answered, staring Flack down.

"And we could very easily go to a judge and prove conflict of interest, wherein one party cannot claim to concurrently be an employee and a client of the other party. Would you prefer it appear that you aren't cooperating with the NYPD in the investigation of a brutal murder?" Lindsay interjected. Steinberg turned to stare at her, pissed that the petite brunette seemed able to call his bluff. Lindsay could read the anger in his eyes, before he pooled his features into a practiced smile. 'As fake as the nails on Caroline Fortis,' Lindsay thought, 'He'd get along well with Dr. Terrill.'

"I believe the conversation was about the benefits policies for the firm. She had a few questions regarding adding a dependent to her policy." Steinberg shifted in his chair.

"Care to elaborate," Flack pushed. Lindsay stood beside him, arms crossed.

"One moment," Steinberg motioned with his hand, as he answered his ringing cell phone with the other. As he started giving directions, Flack turned and gave Lindsay an annoyed look, and she nodded her head imperceptibly, basically saying, 'Do your thing, Flack.' Flack knocked his knuckles on Steinberg's desktop, saying "Excuse me, Mr. Steinberg. Hey!" before reaching out and plucking the phone from the lawyer's hand.

"He'll have to call you back," Flack said before disconnecting the call. "Right now, Detective Monroe and I are your number one priority, Mr. Steinberg, so I suggest you start being a little more forthcoming."

"You come in here, interrupt my business, take my property," the man said motioning to the phone still in Flack's hand, "and expect me to comply. You must be joking."

"Here's something I'm completely serious about. We can do this one of two ways: either you get your phone back after we're satisfied with the answers you've provided for our questions, or you can have it back after a trip down to the station where you can use one of NYPD non-cellular phones to call an attorney friend of yours who can be present when we question you in regards to Cristine Connors' murder. Take your pick."

Steinberg looked incredulous. "Take me down to the station? On what charges?"

"Impeding a criminal investigation, of course," Lindsay responded.

"And lookey here," Flack grinned while waving the cell phone he'd confiscated from Steinberg, "I have the evidence of the crime right here." Steinberg merely stared at them, looking extraordinarily pissed off.

* * *

**alrighty**… so i know i kinda left it in a weird spot there, but that's cause the next chapter is half finished already and this one was über-long…so have no fear, there will be another update tomorrow sometime.

**Big hearts for reviews – they make my day!**


	11. Swelter

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**A/N**: I dedicate this chappie to my faithful little band of readers – I have not forgotten you, I promise, and I know it's been a while but there's this little thing some people call life that keeps interrupting me from my D/L obsession…anyway…here you are! A new chap!

**All my love, El**. (or if you're on talkcsi I go by Mad there)

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**Chapter 11: Swelter**

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"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Steinberg," Flack grumbled sarcastically at the smug attorney in front of him. The man sneered at him and Lindsay for a millisecond before turning and going back to his work, which he obviously thought was more important than helping the two detectives solve the murder of his employee.

Flack ushered Lindsay out of the office before him, keeping silent until they were safely back in the elevator lest there be open ears all over the law office they just left. When they were in the elevator and headed to the ground floor, Flack shook his head and pulled a disgusted face. "Ugh, that guy was real pain in the ass. It's like he could give two shits less about the fact that one of his employees was murdered so horribly. We should'a drug him down to the station and thrown him in a cell to cool off for a couple hours."

"I know, Flack, he was definitely an ass, but we can't lock him up just because you didn't like him. Wishing won't make him guilty. Besides, we can't afford to alienate him further in case we need any further information from him. As it stands, you might have to get a subpoena to get anything else from him anyway."

Flack grunted and shook his head, crossing his arms. "Yeah well, I still think a nice long slumber party in lockup would take that smug smile off his face." Turning, Flack gave her a long look.

"What?"

"How did you know all that legal stuff you shot back at him in there? You really shut him up when you showed him that you knew something about law, he looked pissed that he couldn't pull one over on us," Flack grinned at Lindsay, and thought. 'Note to self: don't ever piss Lindsay off.'

"Oh that," Lindsay scoffed at him, "I was mostly faking that and hoping that he didn't catch on." Flack gave her a shocked look. "Well, I guess I wasn't totally faking it, I had once considered a career as a lawyer, but something changed my mind," she trailed off, but not before her eyes took on a faraway look, and Flack was sure her mind was somewhere else. Just as quickly as the memories had come, they went, and Lindsay shrugged, "Yeah, so everything I said in there was a mixture of the couple law classes I took in high school and college and the fact that I watch too much Law and Order."

Lindsay grinned at him and Flack couldn't help but laugh. They made their way out of the building and to Flack's department SUV at the curb. Even though Max Steinberg had been downright rude in his encounter with them, they had learned that Cristine Connors had wanted a baby prior to her death. She had discussed adding a dependent to her policy with the firm, and she had briefly discussed the topic of adoption or single-motherhood with Steinberg and Galen in their most recent meeting. They also found out that Cristine had moved to the city only within the last 18 months and so was a relative new addition to the population of NYC. Lindsay couldn't help but wonder if the move was facilitated by Cristine's ticking biological clock or by the discovery that she had a younger brother out there somewhere. 'Why would she simply pickup and move somewhere completely new?' Lindsay thought – a question she herself was quite familiar with.

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Danny was still in his office, thinking about Montana's reaction to her flower delivery that morning, when his computer bleeped at him and the Audit Trail printer next to his filing cabinet began rolling printed papers off its inkheads. Danny turned to look at what the computer had hit upon, and found that his search on the last boy's parents had hit upon something. It turns out the parents were registered in the NYC database for foster parents, thereby providing a complete family history as well as various reports on home suitability, background checks on each parent, and various other pages of investigative materials. Danny turned and reached for the papers, tearing them off the printer as more spit out at him. He was just flipping through them, looking for the family history on the parents, when Adam knocked and opened his office door.

"What's up?" Danny asked after glancing up quickly. Adam stepped inside, and dropped a file folder on Lindsay's desktop, next to the infamous arrangement of flowers.

"I just stopped by to drop off some more detailed reports on those tests I ran early this morning on your vic."

"What tests?" Danny looked up confused, pausing in his search to find the family history of Ken and Jill Sdorow.

"Didn't you talk to Lindsay today?" Now Adam looked a little confused. Danny merely shook his head in the negative.

Adam shrugged. "Oh, well, like I told her, I ran some samples from your victim through the Mass Spec to see if I could find out what caused the strange smell Marty smelled when he did the autopsy." He definitely had Danny's interest now.

"You did that on your own?" Danny stood; reaching over to grab the file folder off Montana's desktop, while Adam just shrugged again.

"Yeah, I mean, I guess I was just curious to see if it might help determine what made her burn inside out."

"What'd you find?" Danny asked, as he started flipping through the file. Just as Adam answered, Danny found the results pages of the report.

"Bananas?"

"Bananas."

"Maybe it's just that Cristine Connors was consuming something with bananas in it prior to her death," Danny said, "because I highly doubt that bananas caused her stomach tissue to catch on fire."

"Hey, I'm only telling you what the machine told me. Three times, by the way," Adam said.

"Well this just adds another mystery to a case where we already have an abundance of unanswered questions. Thanks though, man, for running that stuff." Adam nodded and turned to leave, when Danny interrupted, "Hey, Flack and Monroe aren't back yet, are they?"

"I didn't know they were gone." Adam spied the flowers on Lindsay's desk, and grinned. "Are those the flowers he gave her? Man, Flack is just smooth like that, huh? He knows how to get right to the point with a girl, doesn't he?"

Danny's face turned to a scowl in record time. "Flack didn't give Montana the flowers!" he ground out. Adam looked scared when he saw the dagger eyes Danny was directing at him. "Flack isn't as smooth as he thinks, and he and I need to have a little chat."

"Um okay," Adam said as he started to slowly back out the office door, "I'm uh…I got stuff to do. Bye!" Adam couldn't get out of there fast enough; he didn't know what it was that he said wrong that made Danny so mad but he was literally afraid for his life.

_I swear to God, Flack, I'll kill you if you let the whole lab give you the credit for those flowers. And you can kiss your charmer abilities goodbye if I find out you let Montana think you sent them to her_. Danny grabbed his printouts and hastily searched through them and put the family history on top before laying the whole bunch on Montana's desk. He took the results folder for the Mass Spec in his hands and grabbed his jacket, before hastily heading out the door, but not before scribbling a note first. _Where the hell are those two anyway?_ Danny thought, when the last thing he saw before he left were the flowers he had given Montana.

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Flack and Lindsay were just exiting the elevators and heading for the lab when Adam passed them.

"Oh there you guys are," he said, still trying to avoid Danny from earlier. Lindsay and Flack each gave him an odd look.

"Were you looking for us?" Lindsay asked.

"No," Adam said, taking on a rather worried expression, "but I'd avoid Danny if I were you guys. Especially you, Flack. He seemed ready to take away your mojo, or um, something along those lines." Lindsay was now confused beyond belief, but Flack seemed to understand exactly what Adam was trying to say.

"Oh so now he's pissed?" Flack started laughing. "You gotta be freakin' kidding me." Lindsay felt completely out of the loop.

"Is this about our case?" Lindsay asked, hoping to get some answers.

Flack ignored her, and kept chuckling, while Adam looked ready to run again. "What'd you say to him that pissed him off, Adam?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Adam said, scratching the back of his head. "All I did was stop by your office to give him those results I talked to you about this morning," Adam said, turning to Lindsay. Then he looked confused again, "Then I noticed the flowers on your desk –"

"You mean the bucket?" Flack asked, chuckling as Lindsay swatted his arm again.

"You've gotta stop referring to them as 'the bucket'," Lindsay grinned at him. They had silently agreed back at the law firm to not mention out loud the fact that Lindsay knew that Flack knew that Lindsay knew that Danny had actually given her the flowers. 'Oy,' she thought.

"Anyway," Adam continued, "all I said was that it was really nice Flack and that obviously you're on a higher level than the rest of us. That's all, and he went off, I thought he was gonna take me out."

Lindsay cocked her head, trying for the life of her to figure just exactly what Adam was talking about. 'Danny got pissed off because Adam said my flowers were nice?' she shook her head in confusion. 'And what does Flack have to do with any of it anyway?' Flack was grinning and laughing, apparently thinking whatever it was Adam was talking about was hilarious.

"Messer's so predictable," he said, as Adam hurried off, fleeting looks of confusion, fear, and thinking Flack was crazy for laughing crossing his face.

"Adam, wait," Lindsay called to him, "where is Danny?" Adam called that he'd left him in their office, and then made a beeline for the Trace Lab. Lindsay turned on Flack who had already started back down the hallway, towards the breakroom. "What is so funny, Flack?" This only made Flack grin more.

"Nothing," he said, rounding the breakroom door, and going to the fridge for a water bottle. "Messer just thinks he's smart, but he's really not. I've got him all figured out." Flack sipped his water as he looked at the petite brunette, who seemed to be getting increasingly confused and frustrated at her confusion. "Honestly, Lindsay, everything's fine, don't worry 'bout it."

She eyed him skeptically as Hawkes came into the room, looking for Flack to gather him up to head out to a new scene. Flack motioned Hawkes that he'd be right there, and made his way to the door, where Lindsay was leaning against the jamb. Leaning over so only she'd hear him, he said, "He really wanted to impress you. You better go calm him down." With that and a grin, Flack was off.

Lindsay shook her head, and turned, heading for her office and hopefully a much calmer Danny Messer.

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When Lindsay walked in her office door, she found the room empty. 'He's not even here,' she thought. Walking to her desk, she moved the flowers to the top of the filing cabinet and was wondering where Danny had gotten off to – they needed to have a consult session on the case – when she noticed the sheet of paper wedged under her keyboard. In unmistakable print it said:

Montana.  
I had to go take care of some stuff but I'll be back soon. I left a file for you on your desk; it says 'Sdorow Family' on it. It's the reports on the Connors' baby's adoptive family. I hope you're around when I get back  
– Danny.

Lindsay sat down as she read it, reaching for the file in question. She started to flip through it when she realized that she should do a credit check on the family, to determine if money was the motive behind this crime or not. She got up and made her way down the hall, heading for the stairs when she found herself just a little disappointed that Danny wasn't there when she'd gotten back. They needed to talk, and not just about the case.

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Lindsay had just rounded a corner when someone coming from the opposite direction ran right into her chest, scattering the papers she was holding as she began to stumble backwards. Two very steady hands shot out and grasped her just above her hip bones and securely pulled her forward. Lindsay's arms were squashed firmly against a solid chest, larger in size than her own and her head tilted back so as to not knock heads with the person in front of her.

In 5 seconds flat Lindsay had gone from thinking about Danny to being securely pressed against him, her hips flush with his upper thighs right where they met his torso. His hands were flattened against her just above the ridges of her hip bones, right at the spot where her shirt met with her pants. She could feel the heat searing through his fingertips and into her skin, which was just slightly touching the palms of his hands. Since she had tilted her head back to avoid smashing hers with his, she had a direct line of sight with two very blue eyes, watching her from behind a very sexy pair of glasses.

Lindsay's mouth quickly took on the qualities of a cotton ball, as Danny continued to stare down at her, his eyes darkening a shade and a few emotions that Lindsay didn't want to acknowledge at the current moment were sparking little glimmers of light in his now sapphire orbs. She could feel his body, hot and blistering, seep into her own body through the various points of contact – his hands, her hands, his thighs against her hips, her lower belly snugly flattened against his abs – 'his very hard and muscular abs,' Lindsay thought distractedly – and as his body heat flowed into her, it mixed with the waves of warmth emanating from somewhere beneath her stomach and the combined sensations poured over her, filling her up, and yet leaving her craving more.

Lindsay was stuck in neutral; she couldn't move and couldn't think, yet various thoughts seemed to flick across her mind at lightning speeds: 'His eyes are gorgeous, I could get lost in them. He makes me want to submit to him and let him take me home, let him make this contact again without so much clothing interrupting – Oh Monroe! What are you thinking? You have a perfectly good man waiting for you at the firehouse….' Lindsay hitched her breath, 'Yeah but he doesn't generate as much heat in one evening as standing here with Messer has accomplished.' The surprising honesty of her last thought and the physicality of their current situation caused Lindsay to shift slightly – in an attempt to alleviate their closeness Lindsay tried to slide out sideways but only managed in causing the two to become closer than before.

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_Breathe. Breathe. Inhale because you need oxygen!_ Danny couldn't seem to manage to develop any more coherent thoughts than that. Danny sucked in a ragged breath, and with the much needed oxygen came the unique scent of Lindsay Monroe – soap and shampoo, vanilla and pine, and flowers and steam all rolled into one delectable fragrance. _Okay, stop breathing. Stop. Breathing. She. Smells. Oh God! Fantastic. You don't need oxygen that bad!_ Danny caught his breath, but her scent still lingered in his nostrils, and combined with the jack up in calefaction between her body and his, it was only natural that oxygen was heading to other places in his body but his brain. He continued to watch her, intently, and saw the war of emotions playing games inside her, deep behind her eyes, which had gone from cocoa to molten chocolate in a matter of milliseconds. _So good. We're so good, Montana._ Her gaze was still locked with his when she shifted herself, managing to fit her body more snugly into his instead of putting distance between them.

Because of the shift, Danny's hands slid along her waist and back, resting just above where her ass began, and her blouse had ridden up just a fraction, allowing his hands access to the smooth skin of the small of her back. Her skin involuntarily puckered into goosebumps at the feeling of skin-on-skin contact, and the sensations shot through both of them. Her hands had slid up over his defined chest and onto his shoulders, seemingly only touching him lightly but Danny could feel their strength and possessiveness. When she attempted to slide out sideways, her legs had parted and somehow Danny's left thigh had managed to become lodged between them, nestling her hips securely into his pelvis. Her chest was resting gently against his now, and her head, because it was tilted back slightly had caused her lips to part, her breath caught in her throat, her lips dryer than the Sahara. Her head was mere centimeters from his own and Danny ached to bend his head down and close that last little gap between them, wetting her lips with contact from his, when he could see various emotions flick across her face like scenes from an old black and white movie. _Uncertainty. Passion. Lust. Oh yeah, she's lusting alright. And something else, something stronger_…Danny thought as his eyes wandered from her pools of melted chocolate to her dark pink lips and back. The intensity of the unnamed emotion Danny saw there made the sensations he felt because of their bodily contact pale in comparison to the shivering tightening that his racing heart was experiencing at that moment.

In the same moment, Lindsay could do nothing other than stare into the sparkling sapphire eyes that seemed able to bore straight into her soul. He felt good pressed against her, and she felt good in his arms, and the look of longing in his eyes made the heat rolling through her body that much hotter. As Lindsay slid her hands up his chest and over his shoulders, feeling the bunches of muscles rippling and tensing beneath her gentle fingertips she had the fleeting thought of what feelings the same action would produce if her fingers weren't separated from him by the fabric of his gray pullover shirt. Trying to dispel those dangerous kinds of thoughts, Lindsay made the mistake of looking into Danny's eyes once more, and thinking about how this man was so good, so sweet at times, so strong and capable, and so passionate. And when she saw his eyes take on a different sparkle than the lust she knew was there – a new emotion taking over and making his eyes spark and steam, an emotion she was afraid might be reflected in her own, Lindsay felt her heart slam against her ribcage, threatening to suffocate her. 'He is so good,' she thought, beginning to wish desperately that their lips would meet already. 'Danny, I…' she started in her head, not finishing the thought.

_Lindsay, you…_Danny imperceptibly applied gentle pressure to Lindsay's back, crushing her to him more firmly, trying to get as close to her as humanly possible in a public hallway with all their clothes on. He knew that if he didn't pull away soon, he wouldn't until he had tasted her mouth at least once; _if she keeps looking at me like that there's no way I'll be able to leave_. Danny slowly moved his head a hair's breath forward, his heated breath pouring down her chin and neck, and he licked his lips, anticipating. Looking in her eyes, his heart squeezed with the unnamed emotion he saw reflected there - _she is too good for me, but with a little prayer and a little luck maybe I can convince her to give me a chance,_ Danny searched her eyes again, but this time all he could see were his own doubts, as if she were feeling them too. _Give me a chance, Montana, but not like this, not as a convenience_.

And with strength of will never before seen in any human being, Danny took two steps back from Lindsay and brushed off his shirt and pants.

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Lindsay stumbled on her feet, hands spread to her sides as much in an effort to balance herself as in a reaction to the desperately cold shock of the removal of Danny's body from hers. She shivered, a violent spasm racking her from her knotted belly through her toes and fingers and hair. She felt the loss of contact with him keenly, but lowered her eyes so as to not let on to the man in question. When she felt somewhat able to look at him without revealing too much – or so she thought – she searched out his eyes, silently seeking an explanation for why he pulled away when she had been so sure he was about to close the distance between them fully. Danny returned her gaze and she knew his emotions were in as much turmoil as her own, but she also saw the glints of doubt seep into his stare, and she shivered again. 'Doesn't he want this? Doesn't he want the same thing that I wanted? I could have sworn, from the feel of him under my fingers and the look in his eyes earlier…' but Lindsay's eyes now clouded with uncertainty, 'Wait a minute! I'm the one with a significant other; I have a big, sweet, Montanan man waiting on me, so why is it that I feel cold without Danny so close to me? Do I want Messer?'

Danny felt like a heel for literally dropping Lindsay like he did, but he needed space – and oxygen to his brain. He wanted her, _Goddamn but I want her!_, but he also wanted her to come to him; he didn't want them to kiss based on the fact that he almost ran her down. So Danny did the only thing he could to give himself time – he focused on their case. "So Montana, what were you doing rushing around corners and racing up stairs?" He hoped his voice came out more stable than he felt.

'The case? The case! He wants to talk about the case – well fine, Messer, let's be all business,' Lindsay thought, grumpily. "I was actually on my way upstairs to Flack's desk," she said. She hoped her voice wasn't as breathless as it sounded to her ears. "I was going to leave a note for Flack to run a credit check on the Sdorow family, seeing as how their son is actually our late victim's younger brother." For some reason, Lindsay felt the need to explain things to him as she crouched down to pick up the papers that had surrounded her feet when Danny had run into her. She glanced up at him with guarded eyes, "What're you doing rushing around here? Where's the fire, Messer?" Lindsay had fully intended for her last statement to be a double entendre, and she knew Danny knew it too.

Danny shrugged, shoving his hands in the pockets of his pants. He looked down at her, feeling all kinds of aches and stabs in the general vicinity of his heart, and shrugged again. "I was actually headed to the library." _But I'd much rather stall that and hold you again, Montana_. She glanced up again, quirking her eyebrow at him.

"Catching up on the classics?" the teasing lilt in her voice that he knew so well was tinged with something a little huskier. Jolts of electricity shot through Danny anew. _Play safe, Messer, tease her back._

"Why? You need to catch up on your summer reading list?" Danny smirked, and Lindsay cracked a half-smile.

Lindsay brought her slender frame to a standing position; crossing her arms and spreading her feet shoulder width apart, striking the stance directly opposite him. "No." She tossed her brown curls over her shoulder. "I just think it's about time we got together." Lindsay stopped there, knowing what the first thought in his mind was going to be and grinning inside.

_I completely agree, Montana_. "I know," Danny said, not bothering to acknowledge the innuendo. "It's time we sat down and hashed this out – it's high time we sat down and explained this fire."

"Mmm," she muttered, assenting to his quip. "How about you go to the library and do whatever it is you need to do, I finish up what I was working on this afternoon, and we meet for dinner to discuss all this," Lindsay said, motioning a hand between them.

Danny nodded, _you're on, Montana_, and licked his lips again. "Sounds like a plan. McGregor's…say," Danny glanced at the wall clock behind her, "seven?"

Lindsay nodded and the two started to move in the directions they had originally intended to move. As they passed each other – Lindsay starting for the stairs and Danny through the doors leading around the corner and to the labs – they brushed against each other. If either of them thought the heat they'd felt earlier was just because of how securely their bodies had been melded together, they were sorely mistaken. The mere brush of Lindsay's hand on Danny's lower torso sent just as much spark through them as before. It took all Danny's self control not to grab Lindsay and practically maul her, _but, oh Lordy, what I wouldn't give to be in her arms again!_

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Lindsay left a note for Flack and returned to the office she shared with Danny, praying to God that she wouldn't run into him again in the stairwell. 'I don't think I'd survive another brush with him like before,' she exhaled shakily. Sinking into her desk chair, Lindsay started to read over the reports Danny had left her in the Sdorow file, and attempted to piece together how Cristine's younger brother fit into the equation that resulted in her death.

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Danny made it to the library without further incident, but he felt jittery and pumped up – like he'd drunk three cups of coffee in as many minutes and was now on a caffeine high. _Not caffeine, though,_ he thought, _this is another kinda high_. He groaned inwardly, so as to not disturb the other people at the tables around him, and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. He had at least a dozen various journals and chemistry books open in front of him in an attempt to find out just how bananas played a role in Cristine Connors's death. It seemed that all his mind – and his body – could think about though was Lindsay and her body. Danny made himself buckle down and get some work done, but couldn't help one last thought from entering his head: _How am I ever gonna survive dinner with her tonight?_

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**Ok** – so I started this chapter with big intentions of it being mostly about the case, but somehow it morphed into what you just read. Hopefully you still loved it – let me know…updates won't be so long next time - **i vow this**.

**Big hearts and D/L cakes to all who review!** -- and what the hell, cake to all who don't too!

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